


Tied in Pain

by Aulophobia



Series: Three Way Bonds [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: (eventually - kind of - more grey Harry), Abusive Dursley Family (Harry Potter), Canon Divergence - Post-Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Dark Harry Potter, Enemies to Lovers, Hogwarts Fifth Year, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Lucius Malfoy's A+ Parenting, M/M, Magically Powerful Draco Malfoy, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Minor Character Death, Morally Grey Draco Malfoy, Morally Grey Harry Potter, Recreational Drug Use, Room of Requirement, Room of Requirement Shenanigans, Secret Relationship, Soul Bond, Soulmates, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:00:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 50,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28611732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aulophobia/pseuds/Aulophobia
Summary: AU from the start of Fifth Year.  Draco is irritated one night by a phantom pain in his hand.  It is the start of things changing and a bond between him and a certain dark haired Gryffindor.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter/Blaise Zabini
Series: Three Way Bonds [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2103141
Comments: 16
Kudos: 177





	1. Prologue - After the End

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this story sat written on my computer for more than six months now. My current living situation makes writing either of other two WIPs difficult, although I am still working on them, so I thought I'd start editing and uploading this. I find it alot easier to edit my writing at the moment than trying to come up with new chapters. This story is complete up to the end of fifth year, but will continue through 6th and 7th - as well as with glimpses into the post-war future, such as in the prologue. I don't know how long it will take me to upload the chapters I've got written, as I suck at sticking to a schedule. I have no Beta so all grammar and continuity errors are my own - I am happy to have them pointed out if anyone spots them.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Starting in the middle of the story, Draco's post war trial and Harry's rescue mission.

‘It’ll be okay Draco. I’ll tell them what really happened. I won’t let them lock you away’

‘No Harry. You have to let them. You can’t let them know your part. They’ll just lock you up too.’

‘Draco…’

‘No. You have to let them do this to me. You have to let them sentence me. You can go to Blaise. You and him can be happy together.’

‘I can’t Draco… You’re the other…’

‘Don’t say it. You can and you will. I will not let you sacrifice yourself for me. You’ve sacrificed too much of yourself for me already. I can’t let you do it again. I love you too much to let you do that. If you try, I will say you’re lying.’

‘Please Draco…’

‘No. If we could run now I would, do it. We would go to Blaise and live in hiding. But you know there’s no way. Let me do this for you. Let me give you the life you deserve. Even if I can’t be in it. We have one more night together. Let’s not fight. Let’s just be together.’

Harry stopped arguing then. He wished he could kiss Draco, but he wasn’t with Harry like he was supposed to be. Instead he was locked away and unreachable in the depths of the Ministry. So, like every night since Draco’s arrest 2 months ago, he would have to make do with the gentle caresses of his mind against his blonde Slytherin’s. Whatever happened tomorrow he wasn’t going to let Draco rot in that prison. One more night wasn’t enough. If Draco wouldn’t let him tell, then he’d just have to break him out. He couldn’t break into the Ministry holding cells right now, but with planning he could deal with getting Draco out of Azkaban, whatever Draco said about him leaving it be. He wouldn’t let the other half of him disappear in that place. He’d give in for tonight though. He’d let Draco have this night with him. Sending soothing thoughts down the golden threads of the bond between them he let himself drift in the warmth of the love from Draco’s side of the bond.

______________________

“For your crimes against the wizarding world, including, but not limited to, taking the Dark Mark, the use of multiple unforgivable curses, and the murder of Albus Dumbledore we sentence you to the dementors kiss. You have 30 days to appeal, and if you do not the kiss will be scheduled for no fewer than 30 days after that date.”

Harry watched them take Draco away, feeling like he was breaking apart as the words sunk in. He felt a gentle touch from the bond. ‘It’ll be okay Harry. I knew this would happen. Unlike my death or permanent separation, this won’t kill you. It will sever the bond so you can carry on living. I’ve accepted it. I love you. Make sure you live the best life for me, and I’ll see you again beyond the veil.’ The bond shut off. Harry tried to reach out but found it blocked. Draco was blocking him. It was something they’d never done, though Draco had worked out it was theoretically possible. It made Harry want to break down and cry. He wanted to scream and shout and tell them that they’d got it all wrong. Harry reined in his emotions. He’d already started planning for what to do if Draco were to go to Azkaban. He hadn’t been expecting him to be sentenced to the kiss, but it wouldn’t alter his next moves. He had to get home and talk to Blaise. He wanted this done as soon as possible. He wouldn’t leave Draco in that place for a minute longer than he had to.

_____________________

“I’m getting him out of there.” Harry said the moment Blaise appeared in front of the fireplace.

“I never expected you to do any less. I’m surprised you didn’t just blast apart the court room and apparate him away there and then.”

“It was a close thing, but too high a risk; even for me. Besides if I’m going to do this, I need to make sure that the bastards never find us. How are you getting along with the safe house?”

“Another week and it will be completely secure.”

“Good. I’ll finish locking this place up and then I’m going to go speak to our Father in Law.”

“Lucius? Why do you need to speak to Draco’s bastard of a father?”

“I need a distraction if I’m going to get Draco away, and this is the only thing I can think of. I just hope he’ll go along with it.”

“Show him the ring and tell him it’s to save Draco and he’ll do whatever you ask. Play on his guilt.” 

“You sure?”

“Lucius may be a bastard, but he loves his son. He will do anything to save Draco.” Blaise knew Lucius Malfoy better than Harry did. He’d grown up in the pure-blood circles. Had known Draco and his father from childhood. Harry still needed to make sure. He also needed to know that Blaise would be on board with his plan.

“Even if it’s accepting Draco’s fate for himself?” It was a horrible, disgusting plan and Harry had hated himself a little for coming up with it. But it would work, and it was the only way he could think of to get close to Draco with is wands, and to provide a distraction.

“Yes. He’s sentenced to the same anyway. I don’t know why he’s fighting it; he’s only delaying the inevitable. Tell him we’re protecting Narcissa too. He’d do anything for his family.” To Harry’s relief, Blaise didn’t seem disgusted. Just pragmatic. Harry sighed in relief.

“Okay. I’ll see you in no more than two weeks, love. Keep me updated on the house”

_________________

“I’m here to see Lucius Malfoy.” Harry spat out at the guards.

“On who’s authority.” The guard looked at him, distrust evident in his eyes. “Lucius Malfoy is to see no one but his solicitor”.

“The Minister for Magic’s authority. Do you doubt Harry Potter?” Harry said superiorly. He usually hated using his name to get him what he wanted, but for Draco he didn’t care. The bond had been blocked since the courtroom. It had been a nagging ache at the back of his mind, although nothing like the pain of their continued separation could be. It had already been more than two months since they’d been able to be together, the longest they’d ever gone, and they’d only been able to keep themselves from going mad with the pain by entering each other’s minds on a daily basis. But Draco didn’t want them to do that whilst he was surrounded by Dementors, so he’d gone with the only other option and blocked the connection completely. It hurt, but it compared to how it could have been had he been constantly feeling Draco’s suffering in this awful place, it was just about tolerable. Draco was saving him from having to enter his mind and sit in the prison cell surrounded by despair. Still, even knowing how awful it would be, he wished Draco would let him in.

“Of course Mr Potter. Just had to check. Procedure and all.”

“I understand. Now show me to him. I don’t want to spend any more time here than I have to.”

The cell he was shown to was grey and cold. The once proud Lucius Malfoy was huddled in a corner. His hair hung greasy and limp, and he was wearing dingy ugly rags. There were no dementors in the corridor at present, but Harry knew they had only been removed for his visit. Looking at the man he wondered whether Draco been reduced to this too. If he had, Harry didn’t know what he would do. He tried again to connect through the bond but there was still nothing. He wanted to kill every guard here; human and Dementor alike. To tear this place apart and reduce it to rubble. If he could he’d go into the Ministry and do exactly the same. How dare anyone treat what was his like this? Taking a deep steadying breath he held onto his temper. Lucius had been here 3 months, and Draco less than a week. Draco would be fine. He couldn’t act rashly. He had to remain in control. He had to be calm and calculated if he was going to get Draco away unharmed.

“Leave us.” Harry said to the guard accompanying him, bruskly.

“But…” The guard stuttered.

“I said leave us. Or at least stand outside the cell. I’m perfectly capable of dealing with this wretch without you.”

Harry entered the cell and immediately threw up a muffliato. He didn’t have his wand – it had been left with the guards in the security office as per protocol – but he didn’t need it.

“Mr Malfoy. It’s been a long time.”

Lucius looked up. His eyes looked half dead, but there was still something there. A small spark of fight left. It was something that Harry could use.

“What are you doing here, Mr Potter?” The voice was cold, but Harry thought he could hear a touch of curiosity. Good.

“I’m here to talk to you about your son.” There was no point being anything but frank. Not if he wanted Lucius to agree to his idea.

“My son? What is my son to you?” Lucius sneered.

This was the moment of truth. “Your son is everything to me.” 

Lucius Malfoy looked truly shocked at that statement. He spent several long seconds examining Harry’s face. Harry didn’t know exactly what he saw there, but as the curiosity didn’t disappear Harry went on.

“Your Son was given the same sentence as you six days ago. He’s not fighting it. In less than two months he will be gone, and I won’t let that happen. To do that I need your help.”

Lucius’s eyes went wide with fear. “They…. But they can’t… he was a child. Everything he did was to ….”

“To save you and Mrs Malfoy. I know. I can protect her too. Already have been. She’s safe in the Manor and no one can get in or out.” Harry only told a small lie here, but he didn’t feel the need to explain to Lucius Malfoy the true extent of what had happened. Especially not right now.

“But how. If both me and Draco are in here…”

“We activated the old blood wards on the property. No one can leave or enter the Manor without either an heir or yourself with them. The Ministry haven’t been too bothered with getting in there yet, so they don’t know. They’ve been too busy rounding up the other Death Eaters to worry about your wife. They don’t see her as too much of a threat. They will try soon enough, and I have to get Draco out before they do. They cannot know about the type of wards activated until he’s safe.”

“But to activate them… that means. An heir? One not in this vile place. But…” Lucius looked confused and Harry didn’t blame him. Draco didn’t have a child, but he had named an heir, or rather two heirs. 

“Draco put in place the loophole on his 17th Birthday. The moment both of you were arrested I was able to access the wards.” Draco had speculated that Harry probably would have been able to do it anyway, even before they had gotten married and before the arrest, but they had never had the need to test the theory. But Lucius didn’t need to know that. Nor did he need to know about Blaise for the moment. 

“Prove it.”

Harry looked around to make sure the guard wasn’t watching and dropped the glamour on his ring. The one he’d worn since the day himself, Draco, and Blaise had said their vows to each, deep in Gringotts and unknown to anyone but the Goblins. As soon as Lucius had seen he quickly put the charm back in place.

“I assume that is enough to prove it to you. I’m going to ask you to drop your appeal. If there was any other way I would do it, despite how much I despise you, but I need a distraction to get Draco out of here safely. You could spend the rest of your life locked in this miserable cell submitting appeals and trying to find a loophole. But you know the best you are ever going to get is a life sentence. This way you can do one last thing to help your family.” Lucius’ face was a cold mask, and Harry didn’t know what he was thinking. He continued, using every bit of manipulation to get the man to agree to his plan.

“You should have protected him better. I should have protected him better. Neither of us did so this is the last hope to save him. I love him. I love him more than you could possibly know. And I think you do too, however vile you were to him when he was a child. Please prove it to him that you are a better man now. That you aren’t the disgusting, abusing piece of shit I think you are. I know what you did to him when he was younger.” Lucius flinched at these words but Harry didn’t care. He continued speaking, hoping that reminding Lucius about the awful things he’d done in the past would goad him into doing what Harry wanted. “I’m giving you a chance to make it up to him. Please do this for him.” Harry was not above begging to save Draco.

Lucius looked undecided for several long seconds and Harry was sure he was going to refuse. The only back up really was to level this place and that was too risky. There were too many variables and he didn’t think he was strong enough to take on all of the guards and whatever auror force they brought in without Draco physically at his side. He didn’t even have any of his wands with him and he wasn’t sure how he would get back in without the plan he’d laid out. Lucius closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“You’ll look after him?”

“Always.”

“And Narcissa?”

“I will do whatever is within my power to ensure that she lives a free and happy life.” Harry held his breath and waited.

“What do I need to do?”

The relief Harry felt was indescribable. He quickly explained the plan. Lucius was to drop his appeal and request a date for one week’s time. He would, as his last request, ask for Draco to be in attendance. Harry knew that they would have to honour it and Harry would make sure that he was the one with Draco as his guard when it happened.

____________________

Harry almost felt overwhelmed with anticipation and fear. True to his word Lucius dropped his appeal immediately and made the requisite requests. The Minister had been over the moon when Harry reported back and enthusiastically agreed that Harry would be the one to accompany Draco to his Father’s execution. The rest of the week had been spent in mad planning. Ensuring the wards on Grimmauld were impenetrable. Packing and shrinking what possessions remained; they could be collected as soon as it was deemed safe to get back here. Grimmauld was too well known as a possibility for him hiding for them to use it as a safe house anymore. Despite the fact it had been a home to him, Draco, and Blaise since the end of 5th year. Harry thought the hardest part would have been ensuring everything was settled at the bank to ensure the transfers were timed with their escape along an untraceable chain, but that turned out to be simple. As Draco had told him time and time again, old money had its own way of talking at the bank. The goblins were more than happy to do anything to keep the Malfoy, Potter and Black fortunes out of the Ministry’s greedy hands; as long as they got their commission. Besides, the goblins somehow had come to like the three of them, or at least they liked Draco enough to tolerate Harry and Blaise. Blaise had everything in place at the new safe house. The fidelious, the last piece of the complex protections, had been put in place the day before, and their husband was expecting them to arrive in two days. They’d never bothered with the spell before, normally just relying on old blood magic, but Harry was taking no chances. If there was an extra layer of protection they could use, Harry was determined they would utilise it. Polyjuice and stolen passports, along with a few essentials would be waiting at the third of his planned apparition jumps. The only thing he wished was that he was able to tell Draco the plan. To tell him that he was coming for him, and the rest of the world could screw itself. 

__________________

“Malfoy.” Harry sneered. He hated doing it, but he had to keep up the pretence. Every inch of him longed to wrap the man he loved in his arms and get him out of here this second, but he knew he had to wait. Had to wait till they were out of the cells so there was enough of a distraction for him to get the damned cuffs off him. The cuffs that suppressed his magic and prevented the use of portkeys and apparition. In his head he pleaded against the block in the bond that everything was going to be okay. That they’d be leaving soon. That he loved him. Draco kept the wall up for the moment though. Harry knew it was preventing the emotions flooding the bond betraying them with their reactions, so he let it be.

“Potter. What are _you_ doing here?” Harry wanted so much to smile at this. Underneath the dirt and rags, his Draco was still there.

“Your father has requested your presence.” Harry had to take deep breath before he said the next words, knowing, however much Lucius Malfoy had disappointed Draco, that he was still his father. That however much he hated him, he still loved him too. “At his execution.”

Harry felt a wavering at the edge of the bond. Felt a brief glimpse of pain. Then it shut again.

“I’m to bind you too me to ensure you don’t try anything stupid. If you try to move more than three steps from me, you’ll find yourself writhing in agony on the floor and quickly locked away again.” To the other guards his words would sound like a threat. Harry knew that Draco would understand that it was a message. To stay close to him. The bond between them all but prevented doing anything that would cause physical pain to the other, and certainly wouldn’t allow the tethering charm to be effective.

Draco rolled his eyes and then nodded. Harry quickly performed the ineffective spell for the sake of appearances, and then walked out to the courtyard where everything was set up for Lucius Malfoy’s kiss. 

__________________

‘Do you want to speak to your father?’ Harry thought at the bond, but there was no answer. Even now Draco had his shields so firmly in place that Harry’s message wouldn’t go through. Harry wanted to shake his ridiculous partner. Didn’t he realise that he was getting Draco out of here? That opening the bond wasn’t going to open them to the pain of continued separation now. He tried again. ‘Please Draco, Love. Listen to me. I’m taking you away. I know that what is going to happen is awful, but he’s doing it for you. I can’t save him. I am saving you.’ Again the thoughts rammed against the brick wall that was Draco’s shield against their connection. Harry knew he had no choice but to speak out loud.

“You can have some time speak with you Father if you wish, Malfoy.” Harry spat out. Trying to seep contempt he didn’t feel into his words.

Draco nodded in response, and Harry led him towards the table Lucius Malfoy was bound to.

“You have two minutes.” Harry informed the two blonde men. “I’ll be within earshot.”

Harry could see the pain in both pairs of silver-grey eyes and wanted to do nothing more than wrap his arms around the younger of the pair. He wanted desperately to know what Draco was thinking. He’d grown so used to sharing his thoughts and emotions with Draco. 

“Father. I…” Draco’s voice broke and it nearly broke Harry to hear him like this.

“Draco. Son. I should have done better. I should have been a better father. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you. Couldn’t protect your mother.”

“You did what you had to do.”

“I should have done more. Should have made different choices. I… I just wanted you to grow up to be strong. I’m so sorry. You can never know how sorry I am.”

“We can’t change that now.”

“No we can’t... Know that I always loved you. I was too harsh. I tried to raise you as my father raised me. I know it wasn’t right… I did love you though. You’ll never know how much.”

Harry could see the tears in both men’s eyes. He wanted to give them more time, but they’d already had more than their allotted two minutes and any longer and the rest of the spectators would get suspicious. He could see how much Draco was hurting now. Harry closed his eyes, knowing he was going to do something very stupid. He was going to go off plan. 

“Malfoy. Your time is up.”

“Thank you… Potter…. Draco… Tell your mother… let her know that I love her. That you and she were the last thing I was thinking of.”

Harry moved away from Lucius Malfoy, but not as far as he had originally planned. If this was going to work, and it was a huge risk to even think about it, the two of them would have to stay close to the condemned man. He would also need to be able to communicate with Draco in much more detail than with the original plan.

“Open the fucking bond.” Harry hissed in Draco’s ear. “Now.”

Draco looked up at him confused for a second. Then did as he was told. The relief that flooded through Harry was almost overwhelming, but he couldn’t let it overtake him.

‘I’m getting you out of here. I have your wand. I’m going to unlock the cuffs and give it to you. When I say, set off the strongest patronus you can conjure, and we’ll throw up a ward. I’m going to unlock your father. I can’t believe I’m actually about to do this. Whatever you do, do not let go of me for a single second. If we’re pulling this off, we need to share power. Fuck I wish Blaise were here too. It would make things so much bloody easier if there were the three of us.’

‘Harry?’

‘No time for that now, they’ve started reeling off the charges, we have about 3 minutes.’

Draco did as he was told and stayed silent. The cuffs were discreetly unlocked, but they left them in place. They held no power like that, and they couldn’t risk anyone seeing. Draco’s wand was passed over and Harry used the knife he had hidden to quickly carve a rune into his hand to help with the barrier they needed. One that would push away and keep out anyone not of his or Draco’s blood. It wouldn’t work on the dementor of course. Draco saw what Harry was doing and the second he was finished grabbed the knife and drew the same pattern on his own hand. They didn’t need to say anything to work together like this. It was something they had practiced so many times. They could share power through the bond alone, but it was risky, especially without Blaise there. Runes and blood meant they didn’t have to dive so deep into the connection that they risked losing themselves in it. Harry had cast a notice-me not on them the second they’d moved away from Lucius, but it wouldn’t hold once the crowd’s attention was drawn back to the man on the table. The Ministry official stopped talking and nodded to the guard who was in charge of bring the dementor. Another minute. Just one minute and the thing would be in the room. Harry saw the door open and knew it was now or never.

‘Now!’ Harry practically screamed through the bond and slammed his bleeding hand into Draco’s. The people nearest started screaming as they were pushed away, some of them towards the dementor that was now in the room. The dazzling silver of the large tiger burst from Draco’s wand, but Harry couldn’t stop to see what it was doing, he just had to trust that Draco could keep it going for as long as he needed. He was dragging Draco towards his father. The magical bindings keeping Lucius in place were stronger and tricker to undo than the cuffs Draco wore had been. Harry could feel his heart racing as every second passed, praying that the ward held, and Draco could keep the Dementor away from them. The final binding unclicked and Harry dragged Lucius up. He was able to see the room again for the first time since he’d started this stupid, ridiculous plan. There were more than dozen people desperately trying to get through the ward. Sending spell after spell, but none of them were getting past the barrier. The biggest risk to them at the moment were the dementors. It wasn’t just one of them in the room now, Harry thought he could count eight. Draco’s Patronus was doing its best to keep them away from them but Harry knew he couldn’t go on much longer, even with the added power Harry was lending him. 

“Lucius. Do not let go. Whatever you do. Draco, grab your father. We’re going to have to let the ward and patronus drop at the same time as we apparate. We’re going to need all the power we have.” He said this bit out loud, for Lucius Malfoy’s benefit. Then added to just Draco via the bond. ‘I think we’re going to have to play musical wands. Mine is hardly likely to work for your father, and he’s not having our spare. He’s going to need one for this. I’m going to send my patronus out. You drop yours and hand your father your wand. You want the spare or do you want mine?’

‘I’ll take yours. On three’

“Lucius, on the count of three you are going to grab Draco’s wand. Again do not let go of me. Then you are to count to fifteen and throw all the fucking power you can into apparating. I’ll direct.”

Lucius looked like he wanted to argue but kept his mouth shut at the glare Harry gave him.

Harry turned from the elder Malfoy and looked straight into Draco’s eyes and with a quick mental ‘I love you’ counted down.

_________________

By the end of the third jump Lucius Malfoy looked like he was about to throw up. If Harry had calculated correctly, they should be able to have five-minute break here.

‘Draco, check your father’s okay. I’m going to grab our stuff.’

Harry went to the tree with all of their things stashed in the base under some pretty hefty protection spells. He quickly checked through the contents and it was all there. It was then he had the horrible recollection that he only had two hairs and sets of documents. At least there was enough Polyjuice to split between three.

“Draco, we need to get moving again. Another three jumps and we can stop and make a plan. I kind of went off book a bit, so need to adjust a few things.”

“I can’t apparate again.” Lucius Malfoy said, looking greyer than ever.

“Yes you fucking can, and you will.” Draco said to his father, shaking him as he did. “Unless of course you want to stay here and get caught. Six jumps. We need six jumps to clear our trail. Then we can rest.”

“Draco and I will go either side of you. That way you shouldn’t have to do much, just hang on.” Harry said, a little more gently than the berating his husband had just given his father. Harry wasn’t quite sure why he was trying to be gentle. He hated Lucius. Something about the broken man clearly brought out his protective side though. “We’ve stopped here too long as it is, I really don’t want to add another jump into the mix.”

It was the prospect of adding even more appararition to their journey that finally dragged Lucius to his feet. Draco and Harry had to practically hold the man upright. Harry actually couldn’t really blame him for his drained state. Rapid and repeated apparition took a lot of power, and they’d had to add overcoming the Azkaban anti apparition fields into the equation. That on top of the nearly 3 months the man had had in the prison and feeling like shit was pretty inevitable. The only reason Draco wasn’t in the same state was because he was sharing power with Harry, and only the last two weeks of his incarceration had been in Azkaban, unlike Lucius, who’d been one of the first to be tried. Still, they couldn’t stop at let the man rest now though.

Three jumps later and Lucius actually did throw up. Even Draco and Harry felt a bit shaky by this point, but now they could rest for a little while before moving onto their next mode of transport. At least the next step didn’t involve magic. 

“We’re safe for a little while. We can probably rest for about thirty minutes before we need to walk to the train station. We do have a small problem though. I only have supplies for two.”

“For two?” Draco looked at him speculatively.

“Yeah, well rescuing your father wasn’t part of the original plan. But you know me. Idiot Gryffindor at heart who couldn’t actually go through with using him as a distraction to get you to safety if it meant hurting you.”

“I don’t know whether to hit you or kiss you right now.”

“I’d rather the latter, but if we start that we’ll never get out of here, and we’re not safe yet. You’re better at charms than me, any chance you can duplicate one of the sets of documents and change the name. I think two of us are going to have to play twins. Picking up an extra ticket hopefully won’t be too hard.”

“Fine, but the first chance we get you are going to explain exactly how you came up with the idiotic plan to get me out of Azkaban, and then thought it was a good idea to completely change the plan half-way though. Not that I’m not grateful.”

“I love you. I wasn’t going to let them do that to you.”

“I love you too, now hand over whatever you want me to duplicate. You can try and revive my Father and shove one of your vile sugary drinks down his throat. I know you’ve got some on you.” Harry smiled. Draco did not like the fizzy soft drinks Harry enjoyed so much.

“Want one too?”

“No. But I probably should. Merlin and Morgana that was exhausting.”

__________________

None of them had spoken on the train ride from Manchester to London. All of them were too on edge; waiting to be caught. The most nerve-wracking part was getting the additional ticket in St Pancreas station, but somehow the whole thing went off without a hitch. They were now all sitting in the first-class accommodation on the Eurostar, heading towards the Netherlands and the entrance to their safe house. The journey there was a lot less awkward than it could have been. Mostly because all three of them spent most of their time sleeping. None of them had had a proper night’s rest in months. Occasionally Lucius would look like he was going to ask them a question, then promptly closed his mouth again and remained silent. Harry and Draco had had a few silent conversations through the bond, but both had avoided difficult topics. Mostly they just sent the familiar feelings of love and affection back and forth. Revelling in the open bond after two weeks of silence between them. Their hands remained clasped together the whole way. The train was a direct one and took just over six hours. When they arrived in Amsterdam, Harry took the lead, his fingers entwined with Draco’s, who was at his side; Lucius followed close behind them. Harry knew that Lucius wasn’t going to run off anywhere, so didn’t bother paying a huge amount of attention to the man. Even if he had the energy to do so, where would he even go. After a short walk, Harry stopped outside a rundown looking house, between a coffee shop and a brothel, in a deserted back street in the red-light district.

‘Wait here with your father. I’m going to get Blaise. He’ll need to let your father in.’

‘Fidelus?’

‘Yes. I know we’ve never bothered before, but we decided every additional layer of protection was worth it. Also given it was just meant to be you here, me knowing the secret was enough. You know how well that particular charm works between the two of us.’

Draco let out a small snort of laughter. They’d discovered that particular glitch in the charm when Harry had taken Draco to Grimmauld place the first time. Their bond made for some interesting magical loopholes. 

Draco watched as Harry walked into the house. He thought he should probably say something to his father, who seemed to be completely overwhelmed with everything that had happened in the last 12 hours, but couldn’t quite think how to start, so he kept his mouth shut. Ten minutes later Harry came back out with Blaise, who looked a little worse for wear, as if he’d been crying. The tall dark man took one look at Draco and then ran towards him and wrapped his arms around him.

“I thought… I thought…” Blaise tried to say through tears. “When Harry walked in alone, I thought he’d failed. I thought…”

“Hey it’s okay. He didn’t fail. He just acted like his usual idiot self. Do you need any more explanation than that as to how me and my Father are here? Now tell Father where we are, and we can go inside.”

“I just… I haven’t seen you in so long… and you’ve just…”

Draco felt as the second pair of arms reached around Blaise, trapping their husband between them.

“It’s all okay. It worked. You have both of us now. It’s all over. Let’s go inside. I for one am very keen to explore our new home. You married an idiot Gryffindor; you have to expect this kind of thing on occasion. Besides, our Father in Law looks like he’s going to pass out again.”

Draco looked over to his father, and saw that Harry was right. Lucius was looking decidedly ill. Letting go of the embrace Draco grabbed one of Blaise’s hands and saw that Harry had grabbed the other. 

“Tell him the secret, Love.” Draco whispered in his husband’s ear.

“Potter Manor, the home of Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter, and Blaise Zabini, is located in Exmoor England.” Blaise said clearly to the elder Malfoy. Draco looked over to Blaise confused, then over to Harry who had a huge grin on his face. He shrugged. There was no point getting caught up with the details of how a house in Amsterdam was really in Exmoor. Draco knew Blaise had spent a lot of time over the last year working out protections to put on various of their properties. He supposed that them getting to their new home via Amsterdam meant that even if the Ministry were able to trace them to the Netherlands, actually finding where they lived would be impossible.

“Do you see it, Lucius?” Harry asked and got a shake of the head in response. “Oh well, Blaise take his hand and lead him in. We’ll have to show him the secret instead.”

Blaise did as he was told and took the hand of his very confused looking Father in law and practically dragged him into the house. Harry, who had let go of Blaise to take Draco’s hand again, led him into the house after them. When he stepped through the front door Draco stopped in open mouthed astonishment. Instead of walking into a house they walked into the grounds of a Manor house, almost as large as his own in Wiltshire. Harry and Blaise had really found and done up the Potter Manor. The home they owned, but for some reason no one in the Potter family had bothered to live in, or even work out its location, for at least 100 years.

‘Blaise has spent the last few months doing it up and adding all the protections. We can go over it all later. Let’s just get inside. I want to shower and sit and have a cup of tea. Then I would like to go to bed with my two husbands. Something I haven’t been able to do in far too long.’ Harry said down the bond.

‘I think that sounds perfect.’


	2. Chapter 1 - Fifth Year Part One - Where it all began to change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Draco has a phantom pain in his hand.

Draco was sitting in the common room lazing on the sofa reading a shitty novel when there was a sharp pain in his hand. He jolted up, looking down at the offending limb, but there was nothing wrong with it. Just as the pain was easing off it started again. ‘What the actual fuck was going on’, Draco thought to himself. He tried to settle back down with his book. For over an hour he tried to concentrate and ignore what was happening. It was no good, the pain was getting steadily worse. In between the sharp bursts it was now throbbing unbearably. Still when he examined his hand, it seemed perfectly fine and none of the healing balms or spells he tried had any effect.

“I’m going for walk.” He told Pansy, throwing the book down on the sofa, after a further 30 minutes of pain had gone by with no improvement.

“It’s after curfew.” Pansy tried to insist.

“Do I look like I give a damn about curfew right now?” Draco shouted, unable to keep his temper in check as another stab of pain hit. He stormed out of the room, without even a glance back to see whether he’d hurt Pansy’s feelings. He wasn’t quite sure where he was going but he knew he needed to be somewhere other than in the common room with his hand causing him inexplicable agony. The sharp bursts of pain stopped when he’d been wandering the passages for ten minutes, but the throbbing remained. It was an improvement at least. Draco was so caught up in his own thoughts that he ended up walking straight into someone coming in the other direction. 

“Shit, sorry.” The voice came from the floor. A familiar and decidedly unwelcome voice.

“What are you doing here, Potter?” Draco asked, feeling very out of sorts that he had let him get so distracted as to not notice the other boy until they’d crashed into each other. At least he hadn’t fallen over like Potter had.

“None of your business, Malfoy.” Potter spat, sounding much less friendly now he knew who exactly he’d bumped into and trying to ease himself up from the floor. Malfoy noticed he was avoiding using his left hand to push himself up. That’s when he noticed the dark splash of blood on the floor where Potter’s hand had been resting.

“What the fuck have you done to your hand, Potter?”

“Again. I repeat. None of your business Malfoy.” Potter sounded very pissed off. Draco didn’t like the tone.

“If I’m not mistaken you appear to be bleeding.”

“So what if I am.”

“Well, walking around corridors at night and bleeding is not a particularly good thing, even for golden boy saviours.”

“Yeah, well, it still doesn’t mean you should be giving a flying fuck about it.”

Draco didn’t know what possessed him, but he grabbed the hand that Potter had been trying to hide from him. An overwhelming feeling of nausea hit him when he saw the source of the blood.

“Who the fuck did this to you?” Draco couldn’t keep the concern out of his voice.

“I had detention with Umbridge. Bet you’re pleased that she took delight in making me carve this into my hand.”

“Why the hell would I be pleased with that? It’s fucking illegal and sadistic.”

“And you’d know all about that.”

“I would.” Draco replied, just about holding back the sneer that wanted to accompany the words. “And those quills are sick. She should be fired.”

“But doesn’t she dote on all of you Slytherins in Voldemort’s back pocket.”

Draco resented the insinuation. “Slytherin does not equal fucking Death Eater. Or are you too stupid to realise that? Besides, not all those that are evil are Death Eaters.”

“Your father is though.”

Draco winced. His father was a Death Eater, and no doubt he’d be made to bend the knee to the sick madman as soon as he came of age himself. But it didn’t mean that all of those in Slytherin were in the same situation.

“Yes, he is. But that doesn’t mean all of us are.” The last sentence was added quietly. It was something he hadn’t been able to admit to anyone but his mother. He didn’t want to be a Death Eater. He’d heard enough tales to know what it would involve. What it meant. “Look, whatever I think about the Dark Lord, and I’m not admitting whether I want to follow the insane bastard or not, those quills are evil. No teacher should be able to use one on any student.” Draco’s hatred of blood quills was deeply ingrained.

“Not like I can do anything about it.” Potter huffed. Draco thought he was being an idiot. Of course he could do something about it. He was the Golden Boy. 

“Tell someone.”

“Who? Who could I tell that would do anything about it? Every fucking adult I know has told me that I just need to stay out of her way. That the Ministry is behind her and will do whatever the fuck they like to discredit me. Telling won’t make any fucking difference. Telling adults never makes a difference. Besides, why do you care?”

“Because I hate those things.” Draco knew his face and voice showed every ounce of disgust he felt at blood quills.

“Why?” Potter sounded genuinely curious. Potter’s interest was Draco’s undoing. He liked that Potter was paying attention to him, so he decided, probably against his better judgement, to satisfy his interest. Maybe if he shared, Potter would explain what he meant when he said no adult would listen to him. It didn’t make any sense that adults would actively ignore the torture of their precious saviour.

“I found one in the Manor when I was nine.” It was said at a whisper. “It was such a pretty quill. I sneaked it out of the cabinet it was stored in in Father’s office and took it back to my room. I tried drawing with it. The scream I let out when it tore into me brought Mother running.” Potter snorted at this, and Draco found himself scowling before he continued. “Yeah, well I was a fucking child and it hurt. That’s beside the point though. I have never seen Mother so angry as when she spotted the thing. She burnt it up without even taking out her wand. She then proceeded to scream at Father for having it in the house for the rest of the evening. Turns out her darling Mother had made her, and her sisters, use them to help improve their handwriting when she was little. Merlin knows how that was meant to work, but as a consequence she vowed that she would never allow one in her home.”

“Your family is fucking weird.”

“Well yes. It comes from generations of inbreeding don’t you know.” Draco smirked.

Potter rolled his eyes. “Did you just make a joke?”

“So what if I did Potter. Look, I have some murtlap essence in my room. It’ll help with the pain.”

“Are you seriously offering to help me?” Potter sounded confused.

Yes, strangely enough, that was exactly what Draco was doing. He decided not to think about it too hard.

“What can I say, you’ve caught me on a good day.” Draco turned back towards the dungeons. “You coming?”

To Draco’s great surprise, Potter followed. When they reached the entrance to the Slytherin Dungeon he stopped. 

“You’ll need to wait outside, Potter. I don’t think I’ll be able to sneak you in without someone noticing. I’ll be back in less than five minutes.”

Potter gave him a small nod of the head and Draco rushed inside. He grabbed the bottle from his drawer and then headed back out. He almost expected Potter to have seen reason and left, but for some reason he was still there. 

“Here. Put some of that on your hand.”

Potter did as he was told and immediately looked relieved. To Draco’s surprise he felt the relief from pain too. The unexpected conversation with Potter had distracted him slightly from the pain in his hand, but it had still been there.

“Christ, that feels better.”

“Did you doubt my brewing skills?”

“No, I know you’re good at potions. I just doubted you’d give me something that actually made things better, not worse.”

“Then why did you come with me, and then put the potion on your hand, without any guarantee it was safe?” Actually that was a fair point. Why did Potter trust him with this? For that matter, why did Draco decide to help Potter in the first place? And why did his hand feel better when Potter applied the potion to his own hand. Draco had a bad feeling.

“I dunno. I just, well… I thought, what’s the worst that could happen?”

“Fucking Gryffindor.” Draco admonished, then before this strange truce came to an end. “Do you have any more detentions with that bitch?”

“A whole week’s worth.”

Draco winced. 

“Fuck.”

“Yeah well, what can I do about it? But it’s okay. I can put up with a little pain. Not like I’ve never had to put up with it before. My relations have trained me well for that.”

Something about that sentence didn’t sit right with Draco. Why would Potter’s relations have prepared him for pain? Before Draco could form his thoughts into some kind of coherent question, Potter spoke again.

“Look, I should head back to the dorm. It’s late and I really don’t want to earn any more detentions for getting caught hanging around the dungeons at midnight. So…ummm…. See you around, Malfoy.” Then, almost as an afterthought, Potter continued. “Thanks for not being a complete shit this evening.”

“My pleasure, Potter.”

Draco turned back into the common room and stalked straight to his bed. It had been a really weird evening. And not just the bumping into Potter and deciding to help him. Draco rubbed over the spot on his hand that had started all the trouble. There was something there. Potter had spent an evening slicing his hand open, and Draco had spent an evening with phantom pains in the same place. Pains that had resolved when Draco had helped treat the wound on the back of Potter’s hand. Draco was too tired to think on the implications right now. Whatever they were, they were bound to be trouble. It was Potter. When was trouble not involved?

_______________________

Draco was glad that he had double potions with the Gryffindors third period. If he hadn’t, he would have made some kind of commotion in the Great Hall to get away with what he was about to do. Instead, all he’d have to do was sabotage someone else’s potion. Given it was Severus’ class, he knew he wouldn’t get into trouble, even if the potions professor found out. As he was walking to the cupboard to get some ingredients, he managed to drop the porcupine quills into Longbottom’s cauldron unnoticed. He’d timed it perfectly. Just as he was making his way back, past Potter’s desk, Longbottom increased the temperature underneath his potion and it exploded. In the chaos that ensued, Draco was able to place the note and ointment into Potter’s open bag. Hopefully, Potter would find it before his detention that evening. Draco wasn’t sure, but he thought he’d know as soon as the detention started whether his plan had been successful. It hadn’t taken long for him to conclude that Potter could be the only explanation as to cause of his hand hurting so badly the night before. He still didn’t understand why it had happened, but there was no way it was a coincidence. 

Rather than going to lunch with the rest of his peers after potions, he headed to the library to try and search out reasons for suddenly sharing pain with school rivals. He also thought he should look up sudden shared trust, as he was sure Potter following him to the Slytherin dorms and accepting a potion off him wasn’t natural either. There must be some spell involved. Merlin knows what it was, or more importantly, why or how it was put on the two of them, but whatever was happening wasn’t normal. The library didn’t seem to hold any clues, much to Draco’s frustration. Sure there were spells that allowed one to feel another’s pain, but they were complex and involved the two parties actually casting them on each other. One thing he was absolutely sure of was that that hadn’t happened. He eventually dragged himself from the library to go to his afternoon classes, but he barely paid attention. As soon as he was free to, he went back to the library to bury himself in books again. He shouldn’t have bothered. There was nothing in there, and then at seven o’clock sharp the pain in his hand hit. Stupid Potter hadn’t used his ointment. If possible, the pain was worse than the previous evening. Despite the murtlap essence he had provided, the skin was still over sensitive, and therefore the slicing of the blood quill irritated even more than it had. A week of this. He had a whole week of being tortured because the Ministry stooge had decided she had it in for Potter. Why was this his life? If it wasn’t horrible enough that his Father had come back from the Dark Lords resurrection a complete wreck, having been held under the cruciatious curse repeatedly because Potter had escaped. They also had a delightful new house guest, who thought torturing people was the height of entertainment. All of that had led to a decidedly shit summer. And now he had to put up with this unbearable pain, and it wasn’t even his. There had been odd flashes of pain over the summer, now that he’d thought about it. He’d thought it was the aftermath of him experiencing the nastier side of his father’s bouts of temper at the time. But maybe it was this thing with Potter. The first time it had happened had been during the third task, but everything that had happened afterwards had thrown it from his memory. That time certainly couldn’t be put down to anything anyone had done to him. Had that pain been Potter’s too. He needed a solution to this. His family was very much against Potter, and that would not work for him if he had to go through every agony Gryffindor had to. 

He took the few vaguely useful books he’d managed to find to the defence corridor just before 9pm. He decided this would be the earliest Potter was likely to be done with his detention, although given that last night it had been nearly 11pm before Potter was let out, he expected to be in for a bit of a wait. He couldn’t miss Potter though. He needed to know why Potter hadn’t used the anaesthetic cream he’d provided, and try and persuade him to do so the next few nights. He couldn’t go through another evening like this. He was not a person who could deal with pain. Unlike Potter it seemed. That was something. Potter had said his relatives had prepared him for dealing with pain. That went against everything he’d ever been told to believe about the other boy. He was meant to be this spoilt prince. But that didn’t fit with the way Potter talked about his relatives. As if they had been anything but the loving family who treated the saviour as the special snowflake he was. Was he wrong in his assumptions? What did that mean the flashes of pain over the first half of the summer meant? The hunger pangs when he knew he had eaten. The blinding headaches. The aches in limbs that made it feel like he’d spent all day working muscles beyond endurance. The short sharp blows to his stomach, and bruising kicking sensations on his shins. He was feeling Potter’s pain, that much was definite. He didn’t know what each of those pains meant but there was something even more perturbing, that he hadn’t considered. If he was feeling Potter’s pains, did that mean that Potter was feeling his? Did Potter feel the punishments his father had given him. Because he didn’t think he could deal with the humiliation of the other boy knowing. Sure, they weren’t as frequent as the phantom pains, but they still happened. More so this summer than ever before. His father loved him; he knew that. He knew that beyond doubt. But this summer was the first time he’d been subjected to the cruciatious curse. When end of year results came through, and the Granger girl had beaten him again in the school rankings. His father hadn’t been pleased, and with the Dark Lord bearing down on them, he’d had no choice but to show his extreme displeasure. His mother had soothed him afterwards, and his father had apologised, but it had showed him exactly what following the Dark Lord meant. It meant hurting not only those you hated, but those you cared for too, or face a worse punishment. It wasn’t something Draco wanted for himself. He was fairly sure he wasn’t going to get a choice in the matter, however. His father had insured that before he was even born.

Draco was grateful when at 10.30pm, the sharp pains stopped. Hopefully, that would mean Potter wouldn’t be too long. Fifteen minutes later he was rewarded for his patience as he saw Potter come round the corner.

“Hey, Potter.” He called out.

“What are you doing here again, Malfoy. Stalking me?”

Actually, that pretty much summed up what he’d been doing.

“Pretty much. I think anyway. Look that doesn’t matter.” Draco waved his hand dismissively. “Why didn’t you use the bloody anaesthetic ointment I put in your bag?”

“You were actually stalking me?”

“Clearly.” Draco shook his head in sight annoyance at the question. “I already told you that. And it’s beside the point. Sit down. I’ve got some more murtlap for your hand.”

“Is it really a good idea for us to do this here? Have you forgotten about Filch or any of the teachers or prefects patrolling the corridors?”

“Fine. There’s an empty classroom not far away, we’ll go there and lock the door.” Draco got up and started walking. He looked back after taking a couple of steps and saw the Gryffindor boy stood as if frozen to the spot in shock. “Are you coming?” Draco said, starting to feel very annoyed now. Potter seemed to shake himself out of the shock and started towards him. It didn’t take long for the two of them to reach the classroom, and Draco set a few locking charms on the door before taking a seat in one of the chairs.

“Come on, sit next to me. I bought a bowl this time so you can soak your hand. It will work better that way.”

Potter did as he was told and the relief when his hand was in the potion was amazing. They were silent for several long minutes before Potter spoke.

“Why are you helping me? Yesterday was a spur of the moment thing, but you actually waited around for me to come out of detention with everything needed to help today. And did you say something about an anaesthetic ointment?”

“Yes, and if you’d not been a complete bloody idiot and used it, I wouldn’t have needed to spend half my night sitting on a cold corridor floor.”

“I didn’t find any anaesthetic ointment in my bag. I haven’t looked in it most of the day.”

Draco shook his head and closed his eyes briefly, taking a deep breath to calm himself. Potter was infuriating.

“Well I put it in there in potions.” He said with a sigh.

“Oh… Thanks I guess….” There was along pause. Draco could see Potter chewing the inside of his cheek, as if thinking very hard about something. Something Draco fairly certain he didn’t want Potter to ask. “Hey, how did you know I didn’t use it?”

Yes, that was the question Draco didn’t want to answer.

“Urrr…. Umm” Draco mumbled awkwardly, trying desperately to come up with an answer.

“Malfoy, how did you know I didn’t use it?” Potter asked again. This time very slowly and with absolute determination in his tone.

Draco just sat there in silence, still unsure what to say. He looked up and then instantly regretted it when his eyes met the green ones of the now slightly pissed off looking Potter.

“Fine.” Draco said through gritted teeth. “Because my hand fucking hurt. That’s why. When she makes you use that awful quill, my hand hurts too. It’s why I was walking around last night. I was trying to distract myself from this stupid phantom agony. Agony that seems to be linked to you.”

“What the hell are talking about, Malfoy?” Potter said, looking at Draco as if he was some crazed creature and standing up and removing his hand from the potion. It caused a wave of pain to hit Draco. He wasn’t in the mood for this.

“I am feeling your fucking pain. Now get your hand back in that potion before I hex it to stay there.”

Potter did as he was told, but he didn’t look happy about it. Draco instantly felt the relief as the potion went back to work.

“Explain.” Potter said harshly.

“I already have. How many times do I have to repeat myself? I am feeling your pain.”

“But… How?” The words came out calmer but the confusion the other boy was feeling was obvious.

“I have no bloody clue.” Draco said, exasperatedly. “But I think it started at the end of last term. I’ve been getting strange flashes of pain since then.”

“So you’ve felt…” Potter looked scared and slightly ashamed.

“I’m not going to ask what the hell you’ve been doing this summer to make it feel like I was starving half the time. Or why you seem to have been hit by someone on a near daily basis. I only figured out what I was feeling yesterday, after I saw your hand. But it didn’t take a genius to work out the connection.”

Potter stayed quiet and stared down at his hand. When the words came, they were barely audible.

“My relatives don’t like me much. The stuff they do… well I’m used to it now. And I was able to get out of there after a few weeks.”

Draco was surprised at the admission. He couldn’t imagine admitting any of the less pleasant aspects of his home life to anyone. 

“Have they always been like that?”

“Yes.” The voice was so small, and Draco felt an overwhelming urge to hug the other boy, but he resisted. This was all so bizarre.

“Why do you stay with them?”

“Something about my mother dying for me and some kind of blood protection. Dumbledore says I have to go back every summer.”

Draco felt appalled. Draco didn’t have much respect for the headmaster, he’d grown up with his father ranting about the old man’s incompetence and the declining state of Hogwarts education under the barmy professor, but to send a child back to a home where they were being abused. That was something else. Draco almost hoped the Dumbledore didn’t know, but he had the sneaking suspicion that he might. The words fell out before he had a chance to think through whether he wanted to know the answer.

“Does he know?”

Potter looked pained at the question, as if it was something he didn’t really want to think about. Draco was surprised when the other boy actually answered. “Fairly certain he does. I’ve been begging not to go back there each summer since first year. Doesn’t make any difference though.”

“Fuck.” Draco didn’t know what else to say.

“It’s fine. It could be worse.”

“Do your friends know?” Curiosity won out over any better judgment Draco might have.

“Ron knows some of it. He broke me out of there back before second year. Saw the bars at the window and the locks on my bedroom door.”

Draco decided not to press the fact that Potter seemed to be implying that his relatives had imprisoned him when he was 12. If they were happy to beat and starve Potter, a few bars at the windows were the least of his worries. Instead he asked about Weasley.

“And he hasn’t done anything about it?”

“What’s he supposed to do?” Potter sounded indignant, a hint of temper starting to show in his expression and tone. “The Headmaster says I have to go there. Look I don’t really want to talk about it. It’s shit, but it is what it is. I only have to be there a few weeks every year.”

Draco really wanted to ask more, but the look on Potter’s face told him he should drop the subject. It might only be a few weeks a year now, but Potter had said, they had always been like that. Draco wanted to shove the picture Potter’s words had created in his imagination straight out of his brain. Of a beaten starved four-year-old Potter with no means of escape. It made him feel a bit like crying, which he wouldn’t let himself do. Draco had always lived a pretty charmed life himself, this year being the exception. Yes, his father hit him on occasion, or sent a well-placed stinging hex his way. But it had only ever been Draco when misbehaved in some way. That was perfectly normal, not like what he had the feeling Potter’s home was like. It was only this year that things had gotten worse, and that was the insane snake faced bastard’s fault. Draco changed the subject back to Potter’s hand. 

“Look, please use the anaesthetic ointment for the rest of your detentions. I’m really not great at dealing with pain.”

Potter laughed and this, and the smile lit up his face. Draco felt something warm inside at the sight of Potter smiling.

“I could have guessed that back in 3rd year.”

“That Hippogriff nearly tore my arm off.” Draco retorted.

“Whatever you say, Malfoy.” The tone was light and teasing, and Draco couldn’t help but smile back at him.

“Fine. Just please use the ointment.”

“I will. What are we going to do about this whole you feeling my pain thing though? The chances are, even without getting more detentions from that bitch, I’m not going to be able to avoid getting hurt for the rest of the year.”

“I don’t know. We need to figure out what’s causing it first.”

“How?”

“I think I’m going to be spending a lot of my free time in the library. For tonight however, I think we should probably just go to bed.”

“I… do you want me to help with the research…?” Potter sounded very unsure of himself. Draco almost wanted to say yes. To take up this project with Potter. To somehow use it to achieve what he had wanted from the moment he had heard the name Harry Potter and found out they would be in the same year at school. Something he had royally fucked up with his abysmal eleven-year-old self’s social skills. He couldn’t though. He and Potter couldn’t be friends. Especially not now. Not with his house guest. Not if there was even the slightest chance of it getting back to his father.

“You don’t need to. It seems to be mostly my problem. You just need to avoid more detentions. Also please don’t do something really stupid like fall off your broom and break something. I know it will be a challenge for you, but I’d very much appreciate it.”

“I’ll try my best.” Potter replied with a small grin. 

Back in the dungeons, Draco fell asleep, under the dark green canopy of his bed, dreaming about a small dark-haired boy who never got enough to eat.

____________

The rest of the week was, thankfully, mostly pain free. Draco had managed to slip some more of his special dittany and murtlap essence concoction into Potter’s bag on the Thursday. He’d been woken in the night with a dull ache in his hand. He realised, a little late, that without the concoction when the anaesthetic wore off, if the wound wasn’t healed, the pain would start up again. There had also been the random headaches, but he was sure those were more to do with the stress of the whole situation and the late hours he was spending fruitlessly trying to find what spell had done this. He knew his housemates, and Blaise in particular, were getting slightly annoyed at his antisocial behaviour, but this was far more important than his friends right now. He wished he could talk to someone but didn’t think he could trust anyone enough. The last thing he needed was it getting back to his father that he had some weird connection with Potter. Then to his absolute delight, and souring his mood further, on Monday he discovered that Potter had managed to land himself with another week of detentions. He hadn’t had a chance to brew anymore of the anaesthetic ointment, and he knew Potter couldn’t have more than a day’s worth left. This would mean he’d be back to the agony of feeling like his hand was being torn apart again come the following night. It took more than a week to brew that particular ointment, so there was nothing he could do about it. He did have more of the murtlap, so as he’d done the week before, he ended up spending an evening waiting for Potter to leave his detention.

“Potter, you are a complete idiot you know that.” Draco said, the second they’d entered the empty classroom they’d used before. Draco had grabbed Potter as soon as he’d seen him and dragged him to the room.

“Well, she pissed me off.”

“And you couldn’t just hold your tongue. Just for once.” Draco replied, handing over the bowl of the healing solution.

“It’s just… Look everything is shit and she just… And it’s not exactly as if you help most of the time. You treat me like crap whenever we see each other apart from when we’re dealing with the fact that you seem to feel it when I’m physically hurt.” Potter had started ranting.

“I’m sorry.” Draco said, softly, feeling a little ashamed, although wasn’t sure exactly why he admitting to feeling bad about the way he behaved towards Potter. 

“You’re…”

“Look I’m sorry. But it’s not like I can play nice with you when other people can see. I’ve got the fucking Dark Lord living in my house and my dad is a Death Eater. If I make one wrong move there is a good chance he’ll use my father, or worse, my mother for target practice the next time he’s bored.” Draco blurted the whole sorry state of affairs out. Potter didn’t get to have the monopoly on things being a pile of hippogriff manure.

“Fuck…”

“Yeah, so you’re not the only one with a shitty home life, okay. Mine is equally as crap, if not worse.”

“Want a bet?” Potter actually grinned at him and it seemed like he was trying to lighten the mood.

“Sure. Hit me with your best shot.” Draco narrowed his eyes and looked at Potter with a slight thrill at the competition. It was an odd competition, but something about it was making him feel a little better about how everything had fallen apart in the last few months.

“My cousin likes to chase me and when he catches me, he and his little gang of friends beat the shit out of me. They’ve even given it a name. ‘Harry Hunting’.”

“Please… that is nothing compared to actual evil megalomaniac murderer living in your house.”

“He weighs about 18 stone.”

“Nah… I still win.”

“I was attacked by dementors in a muggle neighbourhood and nearly got expelled this summer.”

“Already knew that. My father held me under the cruciatus curse this summer on the megalomaniac’s orders.”

“Fuck…”

“So I win?” Draco smirked. Potter narrowed his eyes at Draco in response.

“No. I have more... My bedroom used to be a cupboard under the stairs until my first Hogwarts letter came. The longest I spent in there was three days with no food or water.” Then Potter’s face fell, as if he’d just realised what he’d admitted. Draco could tell he was trying not to cry as he said his next words. “They forgot I was there. I was 5.”

Draco couldn’t believe it. Didn’t want to believe it. He couldn’t imagine what it must have been like. Trapped in the dark; hungry and thirsty and completely unloved. The tone of the whole conversation had taken a very dramatic turn downwards.

“An actual cupboard under the stairs?” Draco asked, very quietly.

“Until I was all but eleven.”

Draco shook his head. “How shit was your life?”

“My life is still shit. The meglomanic living in your house has been trying to kill me since I was one remember. Nearly has on no less than four occasions to date. And he held me under the cruciatus curse himself this summer. So I think I win.” The last words made it clear Potter was trying to change the tone back to what it was before. The weird competition. Not the scary dark place it had managed to dive into without their permission. Draco pounced on the change in mood.

“Fine you win the crap life award. Or though now every time someone hurts you, you can comfort yourself with the knowledge that I will be feeling the exact same pain as you.”

“And unlike you, I can tolerate a little pain.”

They both burst out laughing, although Draco thought it was mostly in relief. Draco didn’t know why but sitting there in an abandoned classroom at nearly midnight laughing with Potter, made him feel a whole lot lighter than he’d done since he learned the Dark Lord had returned. When the eventually managed to stop laughing, Potter spoke.

“So any luck working out what the hell is this thing then?”

“Nope. And I’ve run out of the ointment I gave you so it’s back to feeling like our hands are being torn open from tomorrow onwards.”

“Shit… I’m sorry I managed to get myself in trouble again.”

“Yeah, well it’s you Potter. You always managed to get yourself in trouble somehow.” Potter snorted at this, and it made Draco smile before he continued. “I’m sure I’ll cope. Just please, please, don’t make me go through this again. I’ll wait here tomorrow with more of the healing potion.”

“See you tomorrow then.”

“See you tomorrow.”

They left the classrooms and went their separate ways back to their own dorms. Draco was surprised to find the common room wasn’t empty when he got back. It was nearly 2am.

“Draco, where the hell have you been?” Blaise demanded.

“Out.” Draco replied, sheepishly, slumping into the chair opposite the one his friend was sitting in.

“At this time?”

“I had something I needed to do.”

“Again, I reiterate. At this time. It’s two in the morning, what in Morgana’s name can have been so important for you to stay out this late. It’s not like you have some girlfriend you’re sneaking off to see from another house, because you would have told me that. And besides, that wouldn’t explain why you’ve been a miserable git and avoiding everyone all week, spending most of your time in the library. Or if you’re not there, locking the curtains to your bed, so no one can get in.”

“I’ve been studying.” Draco said the first excuse he could think of.

“I don’t believe you.” Blaise scowled. 

“Well I don’t care.” Draco retorted a little too quickly. Then he saw the hurt expression cross his friends face when he said this, and he immediately regretted it. He changed his tone from the prickly one he’d been using in his annoyance at being caught. When he spoke again it was with the soft, almost pleading tone. “No, I’m sorry, I do care. I just… Look I can’t talk about it. It’s… when I know what the hell it is and manage to find some sort of solution, I’ll tell you. But until then I just can’t okay. And if you are truly my friend, you won’t push this.”

Draco waited. He desperately wanted to tell the truth to someone. Someone who wasn’t Potter. He couldn’t though. The risk that it would get back to his parents, and therefore the Dark Lord, was too high. However much he trusted Blaise as a friend.

“Fine. I’m not happy, but fine. Just please promise me that if you’re in any kind of trouble you’ll tell me. I want to help. I’m your friend and I can keep your secrets.”

“I… It’s…It’s not as if I’m in trouble per say, but if I don’t solve this I definitely will be. There’s nothing you can’t help right now, though. I promise, if it gets worse, I’ll tell you. For now it’s being dealt with as much as it can.” Or as much as it can with Potter being an idiot and getting himself more detentions. Blaise didn’t look pleased with his answer but seemed to accept it. They both headed to bed. Draco closed and locked his curtains before throwing himself back on to the pillows. He was exhausted but sleep wouldn’t come. He felt dreadful for hiding this from Blaise. But it wasn’t guilt about that that kept him up. The pale, thin black-haired child was haunting him again; every time he closed his eyes. The boy was trapped in a dark small space and screaming to get out. Nails bleeding from clawing at the inside of the cupboard door. The last time he tried to close his eyes the cupboard wasn’t dark. A light appeared in one corner and Draco was horrified to see it had come from a small stuffed dragon burning. It was when that image came to him, he gave up on sleep. It was only 5am so he crept into the common room with one of the library books and tried to do some more research into whatever was going on between him and Potter, but his brain wouldn’t focus. Still he couldn’t fall asleep. At 7am he went showered and got dressed before dragging himself to breakfast. He knew the day was going to be hell.

Draco picked at his food. There were only a few other people in here at this time. He barely noticed the tables around him beginning to fill. It wasn’t until Potter entered the room that he was able to haul himself out of his introspection. He didn’t know how he knew it, but somehow the second Potter entered, he knew the other boy was there. Glancing at him, he thought Potter looked almost as bad as he felt. Dark circles cut deep under his eyes, and he looked like he hadn’t even bothered to get changed out of last night’s robes with the number of crinkles in them. Classes dragged more than they ever had before that day, and he wasn’t sure how he managed to stay awake through them. If he’d had history or magic or defence, he definitely wouldn’t have managed it. Still, come 9pm, rather than crawling into bed as he wanted to, he left the common room to wait for Potter.

“You look like shit.” Potter said, entering the classroom.

“Didn’t get much sleep last night. And my hand feels like it’s been sliced open about a thousand times.”

“It was 200, don’t exaggerate.”

“Put your hand in this you prat. And it wasn’t like I was exactly keeping count. All I know is that it fucking hurts.”

“Ah… that feels better.” Potter said as he plunged his hand into the soothing liquid Draco had handed him.

“Of course it does. I made it. I’m hardly going to skimp on the good stuff when the only thing that stops my hand hurting is making yours feel better.”

“Have you tried?” Potter tilted his head to the side as he asked and made eye contact with Draco. It felt nice having Potter’s attention on him. 

“Of course I’ve bloody well tried.” Draco snorted and then sighed. “It’s not my pain so nothing I do to me actually helps.”

“I really am sorry.” Potter sounded genuine to Draco’s surprise.

“Yeah well… can’t change anything now. Mostly I think I just need some sleep.”

“You looked pretty wiped this morning in the Great Hall.” Again, Draco was surprised. He knew he paid what was probably too much attention to the scruffy dark-haired boy, but he didn’t for a second think it went two ways. 

“Like you’re one to talk. Did you even get changed this morning?”

“I fell asleep in my robes and by the time I woke up I was already late for breakfast.”

“You didn’t look like you slept.”

“Well I did. Not that it helped. I woke up feeling exhausted.”

“Well I didn’t sleep at all, so at least I had an excuse for feeling like crap.”

They stayed quiet then, each of them lost in their own thoughts.

“I have nightmares. They usually don’t let me sleep much, and even if they do, I don’t sleep well.” Potter whispered.

“And that’s why you looked like you hadn’t slept this morning.”

“Probably.” Although Potter didn’t sound sure for some unknown reason. “Look, why don’t you go to bed. I’ll stay here and soak my hand and head back up to the tower in a bit. You don’t need to wait for me.”

“I don’t think I have the energy to get back to the dungeons right now.” Draco admitted.

“Then put your head down on the desk and I’ll wake you before I leave.”

Draco did as he was told, for some reason feeling safe in Potter’s company, and before he even realised, he’d fallen asleep.

Draco woke with his back feeling like hell and very disorientated. He couldn’t work out where on earth he was. Sunlight was coming in in a very unfamiliar way. He was used to the muted light that came through the lake into the Slytherin dormitories. He sat up and looked around. He was still in the classroom he and Potter had met up in. On the next desk over Potter was still asleep. The bowl he’d been soaking his hand in had tipped over at some point and its contents spilled onto the floor. Draco looked at the time and swore.

“Potter!” Draco said loudly and going over to shake the other boy. “You have to wake up. Its six in the bloody morning.”

“What?” Potter replied, blearily.

“We have to get back to our dorms. We’ve been here all night.”

“Ummggmm.” Potter groaned. “My back is killing me.”

“So is mine. Don’t remind me. Though I’m fairly certain at least part of it is my own pain, as I also managed to spend the night asleep in a chair at desk. Now get moving. You need to get back to your dorm and get showered and changed before anyone notices.”

“Fine…Fine… I’m awake.” Potter said with a yawn and not enough urgency for Draco’s liking. He was beyond annoyed with himself for falling asleep here. And with Potter for not waking him up when he said he would.

“Fuck you Potter. Just… I’m going back to my own dorm. I’ll see you tonight. This can’t fucking happen again.”

Draco stormed out of the room, exasperated, and hoped against hope no one had noticed he’d been out all night.

____________

Draco had gotten lucky and no one questioned where he’d been, although when he looked across the Great Hall, he could see Potter hadn’t been as fortunate. Granger looked like she was giving him the third degree. Apart from the agony of Potter’s detentions the rest of the week actually went rather smoother than expected. Or at least there were no further incidents where they fell asleep in the classroom. There were a few days where both he and Potter turned up at breakfast looking like they hadn’t slept, either because they hadn’t, or because Draco was now managing to feel not only the other boy’s pain, put also his lack of sleep. Once the week was out, Draco threw himself into his neglected homework, as well as his research into the pain connection. He also managed to find time to start brewing more of the anaesthetic ointment, as well as more of his special murtlap essence concoction. He did not trust Potter to not find himself back in detention. He made an effort reintegrate himself back in with the other Slytherins, which pleased Blaise as the very least. Weasley had become keeper for the Gryffindor team, and Draco managed to rope Pansy into helping him write a what he thought was a delightfully witty song about the annoying Gryffindor. He even made some fantastic badges to go with it. That was the start of things going wrong again. At the Gryffindor vs Slytherin quidditch game, not only had they lost, but when Potter had had the wind knocked out of him by the bludger Crabbe had sent at him and fell off his broom, Draco had felt it too. Rage had built up in him. It wasn’t fair that he had had to feel it too. He’d ended up insulting not only Weasley, but Potter as well. And in a way that even he felt ashamed of. He knew how shit Potter’s home life was now, yet still he had decided in all of his infinite idiotic wisdom to make a dig about Potter’s dead mother. He deserved the punches given to him by Potter and the Weasley twins. The most horrifying part of it though, was that he was fairly certain that Potter had felt every hit landed on him. He couldn’t be 100% as Potter had managed to remain standing, but then the boy had a pain tolerance that he could barely even perceive.

The next three days he spent trying to get Potter’s attention so they could meet up. He desperately wanted to not only apologise, but also talk about whether Potter really was now feeling his pain too. He’d slipped multiple notes into the other boy’s bag and waited in their empty classroom half the night but with no sign of the Gryffindor. Potter had changed seats at the Gryffindor table during meals as well, so he couldn’t even catch the other boy’s eyes. It wasn’t until it was gone, he realised that they had always spent most of their meals staring at each other before. Its absence felt like a gnawing ache that was growing each day he was ignored. Eventually he managed to grab the dark-haired boy and drag him into an alcove. The instant Potter looked at him the ache abided, though only a little. 

“You’ve been ignoring me.” Draco snapped. He was still in a lot of pain.

“Yeah, well you were a complete shit and managed to get me a lifetime ban from quidditch.”

“I’m sorry.” And he really was. Draco had never felt more sorry for anything before in his life.

“Your apologies mean nothing to me, Malfoy. Now let me out of here.” Hatred oozed out of him as he spoke making Draco feel about an inch tall.

“Potter, we have to talk about this.” Draco pleaded.

“Why? You’re the one feeling my pain. Why should I bother?” Potter spat the words at him.

“Because you feel my pain too now.” Draco retorted in frustration. He pinched his own arm hard to prove it. Potter winced, but the expression on his face remained hard.

“Yeah well, I really don’t give a damn. You’re the one it bothers, so you sort it. Whatever discomfort you manage to get into it’s not like it truly bothers me.”

“Even when you and your friends beat the crap out of me.”

“It’s nothing I haven’t felt before. Just fuck off, Malfoy.”

“But…”

“No. Let me out of here. My head is fucking pounding as it is.”

“Is that your headache or mine?” Draco sneered, now feeling antagonistic rather than sorry. Potter was the most useless prat. He clearly didn’t comprehend the importance of the issue like the idiot he was.

“I don’t care. I’m leaving. You deal with it; I can’t bear to look at your face one second longer you arrogant racist piece of crap.”

With that Potter pulled himself out of Draco’s grip and stormed off. The second Potter turned away, Draco felt like he was being ripped in half, leaving him shaking and near to vomiting on the floor of the alcove. Draco wasn’t sure how long he remained there when a gentle voice disturbed him.

“Draco, are you in there?” Draco recognised the voice as Blaise. He didn’t know how his friend had found him but was glad he had.

“Yes…” He managed to croak out.

“You’ve missed the last two classes and dinner. Are you okay?” Blaise said, peaking his head round the tapestry. Draco didn’t know what he looked like but given Blaise’s response he guessed it was pretty bad. “Fuck you look like crap. Who did this to you? I’m taking you to the hospital wing.”

Draco closed his eyes and tried to ignore the tearing at his chest.

“No…. Just, take me back to the dorms. I just want to sleep.”

“But…”

“I said no. No one did this to me. I…” Draco stuttered and then the tears came, and Blaise’s arms were around him.

“Shhh… I’ll take you to your own bed if that’s what you want. But Draco, you seriously need to tell me who’s been hurting you.”

“It’s my own bloody fault. Please. Don’t ask. I can’t take anymore.”

Blaise half dragged, half carried, Draco back to the common room. He helped Draco get into his pyjamas, then, rather than leaving Draco to his own torment, crawled into the bed with him and let Draco cry himself to sleep in his arms.

_____________

Blaise asked repeatedly over the next few weeks about what happened, but Draco refused to answer. Draco had all but stopped talking to anyone. The gnawing in his chest got worse every day, but somehow, he managed to ignore it most of the time. He barely ate, and sleep was a concept almost lost on him. He knew he looked like shit. He managed to pull himself together enough to get through his classes and his homework, but other than that he just curled up in his bed and let the pain consume him. Severus tried to talk to him once, a worried Blaise had gone to him, but still he would not speak. He knew he couldn’t go on like this. Whenever he saw Potter, he noted that the other boy looked awful as well, which was at least something. Whatever this was it was definitely affecting both of them. Draco knew he should be trying to do more research so he could stop this from happening, but he just didn’t have the energy. Then, just when he thought the pain couldn’t get any worse, it did.

It was nearly the Christmas holidays, thank Merlin, and he was looking forward to spending the entire break curled up in his bed in the dungeons, ignoring everyone. At least then he didn’t try; didn’t have to put on a mask and pretend he was coping. His mother had suggested he stay at Hogwarts rather than come home to the Manor and perils it currently held. She hadn’t quite phrased it like that, but it was obvious to Draco. He was grateful, even though he missed her. The nausea that overcame him was sudden. He didn’t know what had caused it, other than that it was more than likely Potter related. Everything bad seemed to be Potter related. He somehow knew that it wasn’t someone hurting the other boy that was causing the sensation though. It was just a feeling of immense wrongness about whatever had just happened. The gnawing felt a hundred times worse and his head was pounding over and over again with the word ‘mine’. Nothing made any sense. Eventually the feeling left, and he cast a quick evenesco to clear up the vomit. He felt cold and shaky. He wrapped himself up under the covers but couldn’t get warm. He just wanted this feeling to go away. He grabbed a handful of the numerous sedatives and pain potions he now had stashed away and downed a couple of each. Before long he fell into a fitful and drugged sleep. The only kind of sleep he got these days. His last thoughts before he drifted off were that at least when he was asleep the pain went away.

“Draco. Draco… wake the fuck up!” The voice was full of fear and panic. It made Draco want to reassure whoever was speaking he was fine, but he knew he wasn’t. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t think. He knew he knew who the voice belonged to, but recognition was beyond him.

“What the hell is happening? Theo go grab Professor Snape. Draco….” It was the same voice. Draco heard it quaver slightly on his name. Draco felt like his head was splitting in two. The pain had been nothing before this. He wanted to vomit but just ended up dry heaving. 

“Draco… what the hell is the matter.” This time, he finally recognised the voice this time as Blaise’s.

“Don’t know…” Draco croaked. “Head hurts.”

“I don’t know what is going on with you, but I don’t care what you say, I’m taking you to the hospital wing.”

“No… can’t help…” Draco screwed up his face. Everything hurt.

“How the bloody hell do you know?! Have you been…?” Draco missed the last of the sentence in the blinding agony that was overwhelming his senses. He answered anyway.

“No… I just know… not me… pain… hurts…” The words were disjointed and coming out at barely a whimper.

“Draco… I’m worried. Professor Snape with be here soon. Theo is going to get him.” Blaise’s arms felt warm around him. They felt nice, but they weren’t the right arms. Not right now. They weren’t the ones that could take away the pain.

“Just make it stop…. Please…” Draco begged.

“I want to… If I knew what was going on, I would help, but you won’t tell anyone.”

“Can’t…. not my…. Hurts…. It hurts all the time…”

“Fuck Draco…. Just tell me.”

Draco started sobbing silently against Blaise’s chest, unable to do anything else. The pain had started easing off a little, but it was still nearly unbearable. Then everything felt like it was on fire and that he was being torn into tiny pieces. He heard screaming. He didn’t know where it was coming from. It was only as the blackness started to engulf him that he realised the person screaming was him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Draco, like many children with bad home lives, does not realise that Lucius' parenting is wrong. Even when he does realise, which will take a while, it doesn't stop him loving his father. The dragon burning is a glimpse into Draco's less than ideal childhood, and is a half remembered memory of one of the awful things Lucius did when Draco was little. I know, given this, it seems a little odd to have started the fic with Harry not only rescuing Draco, but his father too. Things don't always have to make sense though.


	3. Chapter 2 - Fifth Year Part Two - Its all about location

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being at opposite ends of the country is not a good idea.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick warning about underage drinking and some sexual content (nothing explicit) - the boys are 15/16 and the age of consent in the UK is 16 (although at the time for homosexual men it was 18 - it was lowered from 21 in the Criminal justice and Order Act 1994 - even though it was 16 for hetrosexual couples. It wasn't until the Sexual Offences act 2000 that age of consent was finally equalised. Anyway, enough of the brief history lesson).

The second the portkey arrived in Grimmauld Place Harry felt like shards of himself were being ripped away by hundreds of vicious claws. Pain he could deal with. But this... This was like being boiled in acid. A hundred times worse than the cruciatus. Things had been crap since even before the beginning of the school year, and after the fight with Malfoy at the quidditch match they only seemed to get worse. On top of the near constant headaches, an uncomfortable gnawing sensation seemed to have taken root in his chest. He was able to ignore it most of the time and get on with classes, homework, and the DA. The DA was his one major source of stress relief. He loved teaching the other students and seeing them progress. He was also sure Cho had flirted with him a few times. That was meant to make him happy. He told himself over and over again that it was good thing, but it just felt…wrong. After the meeting earlier that day she had kissed him under the mistletoe. His first kiss and it had made him want to vomit. He’d pretended to Ron and Hermione afterwards that he was happy about it, but all he wanted to do was forget it had ever happened. Then to add to his completely wonderful night he’d woken up screaming after dreaming he was biting Arthur Weasley as a giant snake. He didn’t think pain got much worse than that, and even for him it had been pretty unbearable. Then the portkey had left Hogwarts, and everything had gotten so much worse. He had been pleased when he passed out, letting himself be swallowed by the darkness. He wasn’t aware of being carried up to bed by Sirius. The stream of people coming in and out of his room. The flinches whenever anyone who wasn’t Sirius touched him. He wasn’t aware of anything. 

“Harry…. Harry….” He didn’t know who was speaking. He tried to open his eyes, and then promptly vomited. It felt like his soul was screaming at him. He needed to be somewhere else. He needed to be… He didn’t rightly know where he needed to be, just that this wasn’t the right place.

“Harry… this is just the aftermath of whatever happened with Arthur… You’re okay… You’re safe here… Arthur is okay…”

“Hurts…” Harry barely managed to say.

“I know it hurts… here take this…”

A potion was thrust into his hands and he swallowed it, not caring what it was as long as it took away this pain. 

“You try and get some sleep. It will be better in the morning.”

Someone wrapped their arms around him up and they felt warm and comforting, but they weren’t they right person. Harry felt tears starting to prickle in his eyes.

“Hush now… I’ve got you…” It was then he recognised the voice as Sirius’.

“Make it stop hurting…” Harry whimpered.

“I’m trying…” Sirius sounded nearly in tears himself.

“Please… It’s too much… I can’t do it anymore…”

“It’s okay Harry. I’m going to tuck you back into bed. Take this. It will help.”

Another potion was given to him. Almost immediately he started to feel drowsy and he felt his eye lids droop.

“That’s it, Harry. You go to sleep. It will be better in the morning. I promise.” One of Sirius’ hands was stroking his hair.

“Don’t leave…”

“I’m right here. I’ll be right here all night. I’ll always be here for you Harry.”

“Need…” The potion was starting to take effect and Harry couldn’t think straight. “Just need…” Then the blackness came again.

Harry woke up with a large dog half draped over him. He still felt like shit, but it was a little more bearable. There was still a constant tugging at his head and chest telling him he was in the wrong place. It was also accompanied by the now familiar gnawing sensation, only about ten times worse than it had been at school. Still, he managed to shuffle himself from underneath the Animagus. In doing so, however, he managed to accidentally shove Sirius unceremoniously off the bed.

“Fuck.” Sirius said, immediately transforming back into his human self.

“Sorry.” Harry apologised. His throat felt parched and sore, the words came out in a rasp.

“It’s okay… you’re awake! That’s all that matters.” Sirius said with a grin. His eyes sparkling with delight. He was clearly pleased that Harry had woken up.

“I’m sorry for passing out on you like that.”

“Harry, what makes you think you have to apologise for that.”

“Well… it made you worry and it’s Mr Weasley people should be worrying about, not me.” Harry said, bashfully, eyes cast downwards towards the floor. He could see his big toe poking out of one of his socks.

“Mr Weasley is fine. Molly saw him and then came and told us the next morning...” Sirius paused and stepped towards Harry. Then stopped, looking very unsure of himself. “Harry, you’ve been unconscious for the best part of three days.”

“Oh…” Harry felt embarrassed. Three days unconscious from a little pain seemed a bit extreme to him. He was sure he’d never done that before. Even when the Dursley’s had been at their worst, and he was starving and bruised, he’d never ended up unconscious for an extended period of time.

“You’re awake now, and coherent, that’s the important thing. Dumbledore seems to think it was a reaction to whatever happened to make you see Mr Weasley being hurt. Are you in any pain now?”

“No. I’m fine.” Harry lied. He really couldn’t believe he’d been unconscious for three days. At least it was three days free of the pain. He didn’t think it was the aftermath of the dream either. That wouldn’t explain the tugging sensation and the increased gnawing at his chest, both of which he was fairly certain were related to his Malfoy problem. He couldn’t think about that though. Thinking about Malfoy just made things worse. “Where are the others?”

“It’s visiting hours at the hospital. They’re all there at the moment. It’s just the two of us here. Do you want some food? You must be hungry.”

Harry wasn’t, but agreed anyway, following Sirius to the kitchen. His already scant appetite had vanished almost completely over the last few weeks. He sat at the table and picked at the lunch when it was placed in front of him. He tried to talk to Sirius, but it was hard work. Sirius, however, was clearly over the moon that not only was Harry awake, but also that everyone was staying here for Christmas, and chattered excitedly, making up for Harry’s near silence. Harry had just about given up on attempting to eat, the food on the plate no longer really resembled food anymore with the amount he pushed it around and squashed it up with his fork, when the door opened. A clatter of people came in. Suddenly, everyone was talking at him loudly and he wanted them all to go away. He was enveloped in hugs from multiple people and each one made him want to vomit. It had never been this bad before. He had to force himself to remain conscious. 

“Hey… back off… stop crowding Harry.” It was Sirius. “He only woke up an hour ago… give him a break.”

Harry guess they had all be asking him about how he was and what had happened, but it had all been a cacophony of noise to him.

“I think I’ll just go to my room.” Harry managed to say and then shakily stood.

“Harry, let me help you.” Sirius said. Harry couldn’t find his voice to answer so nodded. Sirius was quickly by his side, wrapping an arm around him to support him and help him up the stairs.

“I’ll keep them away for a little while. You just rest. Tomorrow’s Christmas. Tomorrow it will be better.”

“Tomorrow….” Harry replied, trailing off. Harry was fairly certain that nothing would make it better at this point, but he didn’t say it. He couldn’t let Sirius know that he was fairly certain that whatever was really wrong was slowly killing him. Each passing day just made everything worse and there was nothing anyone could do about it. “I’ll be better tomorrow.” Harry said instead.

Harry drifted in and out of sleep the rest of the day. He was vaguely aware of people coming in an out to check on him. At one-point food had been brought up, but he hadn’t been able to eat any of it. Eventually the people stopped coming. It was a little better when he was alone, but everything still hurt. He didn’t know when he started crying, or when Sirius joined him again.

“Please make it stop…” He begged his godfather, barely aware of what he was saying.

“I will… I’ll make it stop… I’ll make everything okay…” Harry wished the words were true, but he knew they couldn’t be. They were empty promises. Nothing was going to make this horrible ache stop. Sleep eventually found him again.

The next day Harry forced himself to put on some sort of semblance of being okay. He put on fake smiles that he thought everyone bought, well everyone but Sirius, who looked at him with concern in his eyes the whole time. Once they’d eaten – or in Harry’s case, pretended to eat - and opened presents, the Weasley family, plus Harry, who had been persuaded to go with them, left for St Mungo’s to see Arthur Weasley. He was still being treated there for the snake bite. No one said much to him, for which he was grateful, but he’d had to endure hugs off both Molly and Hermione. Sirius told him his friend had come to Grimmauld at the end of term, rather than going on holiday with her family as she was supposed to. Harry didn’t know why, but when they, or pretty much anyone, touched him, he felt waves of nausea that he could barely control. When Sirius touched him it wasn’t quite as bad. It didn’t make him nauseous at least, and it was comforting. It felt not so much wrong with Sirius, as it did with everyone else, but more a case of just not quite right.

The hospital was awful. The noise grated on his senses and there were people everywhere. He was thanked by Mr Weasley for saving his life, but he couldn’t stay in the room for very long. Mr and Mrs Weasley started having an argument not long after he went into the corridor. Ron and Hermione decided that they should probably make themselves scarce and he dragged himself along with them, not really paying attention to his surroundings. He didn’t know how it happened, but somehow they ended up bumping into Neville on one of the wards. When the other two were talking to Neville, Harry wandered off. He didn’t really know where he was going, he just knew he had to leave. It was like his feet were moving without him telling them to. He drifted in and out of awareness.

He was outside the hospital. He was talking to a strange man and getting on a bus. He had hot chocolate in front of him. Then the chocolate was all over his lap. The tugging sensation got stronger and stronger, but the pain started easing. The pain easing was good. He was off the bus and walking up a familiar lane towards the large gates beneath a castle. The pain was almost gone. He just had to go a little further. Just a little further and he’d feel better. Just a….

______________

“Draco are you there…?”

He tried to reply, then it went black again.

“Draco…Please wake up… Please…” 

“They don’t know what’s wrong. But just… I need you to get better….”

“I’m scared Draco… They’re talking about sending you to St Mungo’s…. Just please wake up…”

The voice had been there every time he’d drifted in and out of awareness. He wanted to tell the voice it was okay, but everything hurt too badly. The tugging sensation and the gnawing at his chest were torturing him. It felt like half his soul had been torn from his body. 

“Draco it’s Christmas… try and open your eyes… please…”

For the first time in what must have been days Draco found his voice.

“Hurts….”

“Draco. Draco please stay with me…” The voice sounded desperate.

“Really fucking hurts.” Draco rasped out.

“I’ll get Madame Pomfrey. And some pain potions. Just try to stay awake okay.” The voice sounded anxious and happy all at the same time. The words coming out fast and tripping over each other.

“No… don’t… help me get up.” Draco didn’t know why; he just knew he had to go somewhere. Had to get out of bed.

“No Draco… you’ve been unconscious for days… stay right where you are….” 

“No…” Draco had recognised who was speaking at the last pleading words. “Blaise… just help me… need… need to go… will be better if I get there…” Talking was hard and Draco’s brain felt fuzzy with pain and the tugging sensation was becoming increasingly distracting.

“Where Draco? Tell me where and I’ll help you…” 

“Him… need… coming here… feel it…. Just… help me get to him.”

Draco had managed to open his eyes. He was in the hospital wing. He tried to force his aching limbs to move but they were refusing to obey him.

“Blaise…please help me… I need…” Draco felt his consciousness start to dim again and forced himself to stay awake. “Hurry… need…”

“Fuck Draco. I don’t know what to do.” Blaise was biting his lower lip and his right hand was worrying anxiously at the back of his neck.

“Blaise. I need to get to him…”

Blaise looked undecided for several long moments and Draco was sure his friend was going to refuse and he’d have to somehow make his way out of here by himself. Then Blaise looked down at him, and clearly saw something in Draco’s eyes. The other boy sighed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Draco, but I’ll help if that’s what you really need.”

“Please…” Draco begged.

Draco felt arms pulling him up out of the bed and supporting him to stand. He managed to start to move his feet. It didn’t feel like he was controlling them, but he knew they were moving him in the right direction. With each step he took he felt a little more coherent. A little less like he was going to pass out again.

“Where are we going?” Blaise asked.

“Don’t know. Just know it’s the right way.”

“You’re not making any sense.”

“I know. It’s okay though. I’m feeling better the closer I get.”

“Well at least you’re talking in actual sentences now. That’s an improvement.” At any other time, the words might have been said with humour, but all Draco could hear in Blaise’s voice was concern.

“Don’t feel like I’m going to throw up or pass out either. The pain is better, I think.” Draco tried to reassure, although his words came out a little too casually for that. His voice was actually a little disturbing, as if he still wasn’t quite there. If he was honest, Draco didn’t feel quite there. He felt like he was somewhere else. Or in two places at once. But the split in two feeling was easing, as long as he let his instincts carry on taking control.

There was a long silence before Blaise spoke again. “Do you know what happened?” 

“Not sure… Think so… don’t know quite why though. I just know I need to find him.” Again the attempt reassuring words was less than reassuring.

“Okay, and when you do, you’ll explain.” 

“If I can.”

They’d reached front entrance. Somehow, they hadn’t been intercepted by anyone. Draco knew he must look a state in hospital wing pyjamas, bare feet, and hanging on to Blaise to keep him upright. Anybody that saw them would no doubt send straight for a teacher to take them immediately back to the infirmary. That couldn’t happen. The pain was disappearing as he got closer, even if the tugging got stronger. He knew the pain would be gone soon. 

“Draco, you can’t walk outside.”

“Have to. Need to get to the gates.”

“You aren’t wearing any shoes.”

“Don’t care. I’m not going back. Not until I get to him. If I turn back the pain will return. I can’t… I just can’t deal with the pain again. I’d rather die than feel like that again. Please Blaise. Just help me.” Something in either his words or the tone of his voice persuaded Blaise to continue helping him. 

They were halfway to the gate and the pain was almost gone. He knew he was close. He just had to go a little farther. He let go of Blaise, his legs suddenly feeling stronger and began to run.

“Draco wait…!”

Draco ignored him. He could see the messy dark hair in the distance, just beyond the gate. Not long… not long…just keep moving… an incessant voice in his head demanded. Then Potter was through the gate and the tugging was drawing them together. And then his arms were around the other boy and it felt right. The pain and the tugging disappeared, and he felt whole again. He was lost in the green eyes that were finally looking at him once more. They pulled each other closer, not able, or willing to let go. Then Draco felt his legs go out from underneath him, the weakness from the weeks of lack of food and sleep, followed by his days of unconsciousness catching up with him, now instinct and adrenaline were no longer in the driving seat. He dragged Potter to the ground with him and they both just stayed there. Crying and holding each other in the snow.

It could have been minutes or hours of just the two of them wrapped up in their own world before Blaise managed to get through to them.

“Draco…Potter… are you going to tell me what the hell just happened?”

Draco started laughing. It was a strange hysterical laugh. He heard Potter start laughing too, which only made it worse. The two of them were lying on the lawn in front of the gates unable to let go of each other.

“Seriously guys… you are kind of scaring me...”

“After what…four…five days of me being unconscious, this is what scares you?” Draco eventually managed to get out through the boughts of hysterics.

“Yeah, Zabini. What’s so scary about the two of us laughing in the snow here?” Potter joked. Blaise looked down at the two of them like they had gone insane. Maybe they had. Draco didn’t really care. The pain had gone. That was all that was important. He could sit here in the snow forever and freeze to death for all he cared. As long as Potter stayed with him. They could curl up together and just fall asleep here and then everything would be okay.

Blaise answered, dragging Draco from his thoughts of falling asleep. “I have no fucking clue what’s so funny. I can’t see anything funny at all…but then I don’t have a clue about any of what’s going on. What I do know is that it is freezing… neither of you are dressed appropriately for being outside in December, and Draco has been unconscious in the hospital wing with no one knowing what’s going on since the day before term ended.”

“You’ve been unconscious the entire time. I woke up yesterday.” Potter poked Draco in the ribs.

“Prat. You have a better pain tolerance than me. It was unbearable.”

“Christ, I didn’t think anything could hurt like that.” 

“What are you guys talking about? And also why are you suddenly acting like friends?” Blaise asked, looking more confused than ever.

“We don’t rightly know.” Draco replied, his face stretched into a wide grin. It was only with Blaise pointing it out that he realised that staying in the cold maybe wouldn’t be the best idea after all. More sensations than just the lack of the awful pain of the last weeks were starting to break through the elation he had felt when Potter and he had finally touched. “But you’re right about us needing to get inside. I’m bloody freezing. And you Potter, are sitting on a rock. I can feel it digging into my arse.”

“Sorry. I don’t think I can get up by myself though. My legs feel a bit like jelly. I don’t actually know when I last ate.”

“I wasn’t sure whether that was your hunger or mine I was feeling. I’m assuming yours then. Did they give me nutrient potions when I was unconscious, Blaise?”

“Urrr… yes…?” Almost none of what Harry and Draco were saying made any sense to anyone that wasn’t the two of them, but Blaise had already pulled himself down the rabbit hole helping Draco out of the castle, and wasn’t going to stop helping now. Not when he seemed to be at least a small step closer to an explanation about what had nearly killed his best friend.

“Okay definitely your hunger then, Harry. I woke up less than hour ago, so they would have given me something in the last few hours. Blaise help us up, would you?”

Blaise did help them up, although it was a struggle as neither Draco nor Potter seemed to be able to let go of each other. It took them twice as long as normal to get back to the castle and by the time they reached there, they were both shivering. Draco’s feet felt completely numb where he’d crossed the grounds barefoot. Twice. The snow had seeped into their clothes adding to the cold.

“I need to take you two to the hospital wing.” Blaise said once they were in the castle.

“No!” Both Draco and Potter replied in unison.

“You need to go see Madame Pomfrey. You’re both bloody freezing and soaking wet. Neither of you were well to begin with it seems. You need a healer.”

“No… we can’t… they’ll… just take us to the dorms or something.” Draco pleaded, eyes wide with fear.

“Draco… Do you know how much you’ve asked of me today?”

“Just this one thing. We’ll go see Pomfrey later. We just need somewhere to talk alone first.”

“Fine. But I’m raiding your potions stash and you’re both taking a pepper up. Then you’re going to explain everything.”

“Yes… just please… not the hospital wing… not yet. We’ll have to separate if we go there. And I just… can’t…” Draco felt tears welling up in his eyes at the thought.

“Okay you two idiots. I’m going to put my arm around you Draco. You keep holding on to Potter if you need to, but you don’t look like you can walk unsupported any longer.”

It was true. Draco could feel his legs trying to buckle, and he couldn’t feel the ground through his numb feet anymore. They somehow managed to make it down to the dungeons though, and Draco silently thanked whatever deity had intervened so that every other Slytherin had gone home for the holidays. He was helped onto his bed by Blaise, and Potter led down next to him. Blaise shoved a couple of potions in their hands, and both of them drank them down, not even needing the stern look the other boy gave them. Then Potter curled into his side, and for the first time in months everything felt okay.

“I’m going to get something to clean your feet and try and warm them up before you get frostbite, Draco.”

“…Kay Blaise…” Draco replied sleepily, no longer caring about the burning the return of heat to his toes was causing.

“Don’t you dare fall asleep. Either of you.” Blaise said in a commanding tone and Draco opened his eyes. Blaise left Harry and Draco alone.

“Draco…” Harry’s voice was soft and quiet. Draco opened his eyes. Harry’s face was very close and the startling green eyes were drawing Draco in. He pressed his forehead against the dark-haired boy’s.

“Yes Harry…” Draco whispered in response.

“I shouldn’t have told you to go away.”

“I was a git. I deserved to be told to fuck off.”

“What the hell is happening to us?”

“I really don’t know. But whatever it is it feels better now.”

“I think people are probably worried about me. I kind of walked out of St Mungo’s without telling anyone where I was going.”

“You were in hospital?” Draco said, concern and anxiety welling up.

“Visiting.” Harry quickly reassured. “Ron’s dad got hurt. It’s why we left just before term ended. I got to my godfather’s place with the Weasleys and it felt like I was being shredded into tiny pieces and I just passed out.”

“I think I must have passed out too when you left the grounds. Fuck. This is really messed up.”

“You think?!” Harry snorted.

“My feet are really starting to bug me now. Where is Blaise… he needs to do something to fix it.” Draco whined slightly.

“I wouldn’t need to do anything to fix it if you didn’t decide to go for a nice stroll in the snow. In December. With no shoes on.” Blaise said, entering the room with a pile of towels and a bowl of water.

“It was that or pass out again.” Draco replied, shuddering slightly at the memory

“I would have gotten there.” Harry said softly, reaching his hand to stroke Draco’s cheek.

“I couldn’t stand another second of it though. This is nothing. You can feel it. It’s child’s play.” Draco reassured Harry.

“Well this is a nothing that I’m going to have to deal with.” Blaise looked between the two of them, oscillating between annoyed and confused. “I’ve got a lukewarm bowl of water; do you want try putting your feet in here? Hopefully, it won’t be too hot. Also you should get out of those soaked clothes. Both of you.”

As Draco was unable to sit up unsupported, Blaise grabbed the bedding off all of the other beds and created a soft support for his friend to lean against whilst his feet were soaking in the bowl. He helped both of the boys into a comfortable position. He then proceeded to them get undressed and into dry clothes, which they were unable to manage themselves. This task was made much tricker by the fact that they would not let go of each other. Undressing Harry, he noticed the Gryffindor boy was at least as thin Draco. As if he also hadn’t eaten properly in a long time. There were also several scars hiding under the clothes. The sight of them made Blaise feel a little sick. There was really only one explanation for the many identical small circular scars of healed burns on Potter’s back, and he wondered who the hell had done it to him. He thought it best not to ask though. He doubted if it would go down well if he started asking the boy, he barely knew, who had used him to stub out cigarettes on. The scars at least looked old, which was something – although that implied that Potter was quite young when someone decided to do that to him. Trying to distract himself from these dark thoughts, Blaise focused on periodically casting warming charms on the water Draco’s feet were bathing in, to increase the temperature incrementally and slowly. He really needed to get some proper food for the two of them but didn’t want to leave them, and he didn’t even know where the kitchens were anyway. Instead he rummaged amongst his unopened Christmas presents and dug out the box of chocolates his mother sent him every year. It wasn’t exactly nutritious, but at least it had plenty of sugar.

“So, are you going tell me what is going on then, seeing as I’ve apparently been dragged into this mess?” Blaise said, once he was happy that Draco and Potter were looking a little better. Or if not better so much, at least not quite as likely to pass out. 

Draco looked at Harry, needing to know whether he was happy with Blaise knowing the truth of what had been going on between the two of them – or at least as much as they understood, which admittedly wasn’t a huge amount. Harry looked over at Blaise, scrutinising him for several seconds, and then shrugged in assent. Draco answered. “It started back at the start of term. Or at least that’s when I realised what was happening. It had been happening over the summer too, but I didn’t recognise it. Basically when one of us gets hurt, the other feels it. It seems to extend to lack of sleep and hunger, as well as physical injuries. At first, I thought it was one way. Then we had that fight at the Quidditch match, and it became apparent it’s a two-way thing. Before the fight, things actually weren’t too bad but after that Harry started ignoring me.”

“You know why I did that.” Harry interjected.

“I know and I’m sorry, but we can’t change it now. Whatever this thing between us is, and don’t ask me what it is because I don’t have a clue, it doesn’t like us ignoring each other. It resulted in near constant pain, along with extreme difficulties eating and sleeping. Or at least it was that way for me.”

“Me too.” Potter added.” “There also seems to be an issue with the other people touching me. It felt wrong and made me want to be sick whenever anyone that wasn’t Sirius came in contact with me back at Grimmauld. Don’t know when that particular side effect started.”

“I haven’t noticed the feeling sick thing. Although Blaise touching me to help me get to you didn’t seem to bother me.” Draco paused. Then he remembered. There was one time he had felt sick. “There was something on that last day of term. Before everything else happened. Maybe a couple of hours earlier. I felt wrong and threw up. No one was touching me at the time, but it sounds like a similar thing to what you’re describing.”

Harry thought back to the evening before everything had gone horribly wrong. He remembered what happened at the end of the DA meeting, and the almost overwhelming nausea that accompanied it. “Urrr… It’s possible that the touching thing is two ways too… Umm…Cho, the Ravenclaw seeker, she kind of kissed me that evening.”

Draco reacted to that by immediately pulling Harry in closer and whispering ‘mine’ over and over again into his hair possessively. 

“Umm. You guys; are you going to finish the story? You still haven’t explained the whole, you know, four days unconscious thing.” Blaise had been listening without interruption to the two of them, essentially just talk back and forth between themselves, even though they were meant to be talking to him. Their behaviour puzzled him. It wasn’t just the touching. It was the whole way they interacted with each other, as if all of their past enmity was dropped for the moment. Draco being a bit possessive wasn’t new to Blaise, he’d always been a bit like that. But for him to be possessive over Potter was just bizarre. And his current actions were over the top, even for Draco.

“Sorry, seems this thing… It’s hard to concentrate sometimes on anyone who isn’t Harry. And it’s making me feel just a little possessive and overprotective.” Draco said, tearing his face from Harry’s hair and looking back towards Blaise.

“Just a bit.” Harry laughed.

“Fine, a lot.”

“Prat.”

“Draco’s always been possessive. Although this is a little more extreme.” Draco stuck his tongue out at Blaise, and Harry’s laughter increased. Blaise sighed. “Anyway, are you ever going to get on with telling me what happened? Seriously you two are just…” Blaise said, waving his hands at them in complete exasperation.

“Go on Draco, you carry on.” Harry nuzzled into Draco’s neck as he said this, completely unaware that this was extremely odd behaviour. 

“Actually, this is the point where I don’t know what happened at all, other than assuming it’s not a good idea for us to be in different locations. Or at least it’s not when this link is already stressed, which I’m pretty certain everything after the fight we had was doing.”

Harry pulled Draco into him a little tighter and closed his eyes remembering. When he opened his eyes, he looked at Blaise.

“I had a nightmare, and I woke up screaming in the dorm room feeling like my head was going to explode.” Harry said, his voice a little flat.

“That explains the screaming down here then.” Blaise said, softly, as if he thought Harry might spook and run. There was something about the way he looked, like a deer spotting a wolf, unsure whether to freeze or run in its panic, and waiting for it to pounce. “Draco started screaming and had the whole dorm in a bit of a fright. What it doesn’t explain is why a nightmare resulted in you leaving he school in the middle of the night. Nor does explain why the two of you are linked like this.”

“In the nightmare I saw Ron’s dad being attacked by a giant snake.” Harry had started crying, and Blaise really didn’t know what to do now. It seemed Draco did though, as he pulled Harry’s head into his chest and started stroking his hair. Harry continued through the tears, seeming comforted by Draco’s actions. “It wasn’t a normal dream. I knew that it had really happened, and that Arthur Weasley was lying dying and bleeding somewhere, and no one was going to save him. I managed to persuade Professor McGonagall to take me to the headmaster, who confirmed it was real. They got someone to Mr Weasley in time. Just. Dumbledore sent me and all the Weasley children to my Godfather’s place.”

“Why not to the Weasley home?” Draco asked, his fingers still playing with the hair at the nape of Harry’s neck.

“My Godfather lives in London, so it’s closer to St Mungo’s. There are also a fair number of protective wards over the place so it’s a relatively safe place for me to be.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Blaise shrugged.

“I don’t think it would have made much difference where I went anyway. The second the portkey landed I started screaming again.” Now he wasn’t talking about the nightmare, Potter seemed a little less freaked out. The nightmare sounded disturbing enough hearing about second hand, but to have had to experience it and then realise it was all true…? Blaise had no idea how someone could dream about events happening hundreds of miles away. But then he also had no idea how Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy had ended up in the bizarre situation they’d found themselves in. It seemed that nothing in Potter’s life had ever been normal. At least if the rumours about what had happened in their first four years were true. On top of the whole boy-who-lived thing.

Harry continued. “I woke up yesterday. I tried to push through the tugging, pain and nausea but whilst we were visiting in St Mungo’s today something apparently snapped, and I made my way here. I was barely even aware of what was happening until I got through the gate and you were there.” He was looking at Draco with almost impossibly wide eyes, filled with so much affection and gratitude, as he said these last words. Blaise watched as Draco clung tighter, if that were even possible at this point, to the dark-haired boy sat next to him.

“When Draco woke up, it was like he was acting on some kind of instinct too. I’m guessing it happened around the same point you started to make your way here. I don’t think either of you were actually in control of your actions.” Blaise pondered out loud, then came to a worrying conclusion, something he’d managed to miss. “So you really have runaway and there are probably people looking for you, Potter?”

“I think so. Actually I’m fairly certain they’ll be looking for me.” Potter’s voice sounded slightly distressed at admitting this. Guilt appearing to start eating at him. Blaise felt distressed too.

“You can’t be found down here.” Blaise said, trying to keep the panic bubbling up from inside him from his voice and failing. “There will be far too many questions. People are probably looking for Draco too as he’s escaped the hospital wing. Draco this cannot get back to your father.”

“I know. I just…” Draco replied, clinging to Harry as though his life depended on it.

Neither Potter nor Draco seemed capable of taking control to protect themselves from the consequences of the two of them being found together like this. Clearly the distress of separating far outweighed being found out for the two of them. Blaise decided it had to be up to him. Draco was his best friend, and he couldn’t let this get out. If it did, things would get ugly fast. There was something about Potter too, he didn’t know the boy, but some of the same protective instincts that he had for Draco, that had been magnified through his illness over the last through days and weeks, were being transferred to the dark-haired Gryffindor too. “Okay. Draco do you think you can walk?” Draco shook his head. Blaise, sighed, but he’d been expecting the answer. He turned towards the dark-haired teen needing an answer to the same question. If neither of them could walk he had no idea how he’d get them out of here. “Potter?”

“I can walk. I’m fairly certain the only thing I can’t do right now is let go of Draco. I’m more used to pushing through than Draco is.”

“Draco I’m going to carry you to the hospital wing. Potter you are going to walk next to me and keep hold of Draco’s hand or something. When we get to the hospital wing you are going to have to let go of each other. At least for long enough for Pomfrey to examine you and get you into beds. The second she leaves we’ll spell the beds together. I’m going to stay with you so that I can separate you whenever someone comes in. Fuck this is giant mess.” Blaise sighed loudly. “And I’ll also have to figure something out to explain why you’re wearing my clothes Potter, and how Draco got changed. Potter, you will have to think of your own bloody story as to why you ended up back here in the first place. And something that will stop people linking Draco’s illness to you.”

Neither Draco nor Harry could think of any objections, aside from the fact that they didn’t want to let go of each other. All they could really think about at the moment was each other, and Blaise appeared to know what he was doing. Draco already trusted Blaise implicitly, and somehow Harry had started to do the same, though he was unsure why. He was grateful that the Slytherin teen, he’d barely registered before, was helping him and Draco. The final fact that prompted them to attempt to move was the reminder that, even though the dungeons were empty bar the three of them, Snape would come looking for Draco here, and when that happened Harry had to be elsewhere. Close together, even when they couldn’t touch, in the hospital wing was going to be as good as it got. 

Potter was not able to walk unaided despite what he had said. He’d also had weeks of near starvation and no sleep to contend with, but between them they managed to get to the hospital wing with Blaise carrying Draco whilst Potter leant heavily on him. By the time they got there Blaise was exhausted from the strain. Madame Pomfrey came in and fussed over all of them, chastising Harry and Draco for being out when they were clearly sick, and Blaise for not calling for help to get them back here. She didn’t question why Potter was there though, or why and how Draco was out of bed in the first place, for which Blaise was thankful. The school nurse was well known for not asking too many questions. Blaise could see the strain in both boys’ faces the second they had to stop touching, however. It was painful to see his friend like that, particularly after the weeks of seeing that same expression near constantly. At least now he knew the cause and could hopefully do something about it soon. After the school nurse had shoved a pile of potions down both of their throats and left muttering about students who didn’t know how to stay put, Blaise immediately set up a warning charm so he could tell when someone was approaching and pushed the two beds together. Potter and Draco instantly wrapped themselves around each other. Although they’d managed to get to the point of just needing a simple touch in the hour or so down in the dungeons, the thirty minutes separation had seemingly undone all of that. Hand holding wasn’t enough again. Blaise hoped that by the time the rest of the students came back from the holidays, things would improve, otherwise there would be no way to keep this a secret.

Blaise watched the two of them having a whispered conversation whilst he sat in the chair on Draco’s side of the bed, thinking about how he was going to deal with this whole mess, and why he of all people was dealing with it. There didn’t seem to be anyone else to do it though, and Potter and Draco seemed incapable at the moment of thinking beyond each other. A slight buzzing came from the charms he’d set up and he knew someone was coming to see them.

“You two. I need to separate the beds. Someone is coming.” Blaise said clearly and got two cross looking scowls in return. He ignored them and proceeded to rapidly to put the beds back to how they normally were. He was just in time as Professor Snape walked in less than thirty seconds after he was done.

“Draco.” The stern Professor said. “I’m glad to see you are feeling better, although am displeased to find out that you left your bed this morning.”

“Sorry Severus. I don’t know what happened.”

“Very well. We’ll have a discussion later. However right now I need to speak to Potter alone.” Without any other warning the Professor summoned a screen to appear between the two beds and put up silencing charms.

“Blaise…. It hurts…” Draco started whimpering less than two minutes after Professor Snape had blocked Draco’s view of Potter and gone to talk to him.

“Draco. I don’t know how to make it better. Professor Snape will be done soon.”

“Please…” Draco reached towards the screen and looked like he was going to try and get out of bed.

“Draco you can’t. Not yet.” Blaise tried to reassure his friend, but he didn’t think his words had even been heard as Draco continued to try and push himself out of the bed. Blaise did the only thing he could think of and sat on the bed next to Draco and wrapped his arms around him. Draco started crying into his chest.

“Merlin you are an idiot Draco, how did you get yourself into this mess. I’ll be here with you till you can get Potter back. I’m not letting you go, okay.”

Blaise felt a small nod against his chest and continued to hold his friend, trying desperately to ignore how much he liked touching Draco like this. It wasn’t as if anything could happen between the two of them. Draco had been promised to the Greengrass family since he was a small child, and even if that hadn’t been the case, it appeared that Potter now had claim over Draco, given their reactions to other people touching them. He did wonder why he seemed to be an exception, as Draco gave no additional signs of being distressed by the contact, and in fact seem to be comforted by it. He hoped that Potter was holding up better than Draco whilst he was with Professor Snape. Potter did seem to be slightly more able to control, or at least bear, whatever this thing was than Draco. He heard a cough from behind him and turned to see Professor Snape was back with the two of them. He didn’t let go of Draco though.

“Mr Zabini. I believe I have you to thank for helping Draco back to the hospital wing, as well as apparently finding and assisting Mister Potter here when you found him wandering around the school. I believe twenty points to Slytherin is in order. Now, Draco can you please look at me.” 

Blaise had to physically tilt Draco’s head up so he could look at their head of house.

“Draco.” Professor Snape continued. “Your parents have arranged for you to see a mind-healer in the New Year. They were very concerned to hear about your lack of eating, which Madame Pomfrey believes is the cause of your episode at the end of term. You will be sent specially prepared plates of food at each meal. These will be monitored to ensure you are eating enough. You will also be taking nutrient potions twice a day. Madame Pomfrey will expect you each Friday in the hospital wing to weigh you. There will be no arguments about this. Understand.”

“Yes, Severus.” Draco croaked out.

“Very well, I have to leave now and fix the mess the Potter brat has created.”

Professor Snape left with the usual billowing of his robes and Blaise immediately removed the screen and charmed the beds back together. As before, Potter moved to wrap himself around Draco, without even letting Blaise let go of him. After a minute or so Draco seemed to realise that Potter was there and released Blaise so he could move away. Potter stopped Blaise from getting off the bed.

“Stay.” Potter said, as he grabbed Blaise’s wrist. “I don’t know why, but I think it helped when you held him whilst we were separated.” Reluctantly Blaise did as he was told and moved to a cross-legged position on the bed opposite Potter, who had Draco leant into his chest. Blaise held onto Draco’s hand and stroked his wrist with this thumb until the blond boy regained some kind of coherency.

“What did Severus want?” Draco asked, the first of them to speak.

“To berate me for being an irresponsible child, and then tell me I’m having occlumency lessons with him on Dumbledore’s orders.”

“Why Occlumency?” Blaise questioned.

“Because of the nightmare I had. Turns out it was Voldemort’s snake, and as I was seeing through the snake’s eyes, I apparently have some kind of connection with him. Though they didn’t explain exactly what kind of connection. They want me to be able to block him out. Somehow, I get to be lucky enough to have two strange unexplainable links. At least he managed to give me an excuse as to why I ended up here. The others all overheard Moody talking about how he thought I’d been possessed by Voldemort and I was there apparently, although I can’t remember – conversations have been a little blurry and hard to pay attention to. They all assumed that I ran off because I believed it. It seemed as good a reason as any, so I went with it.”

“And you’re not being possessed by the Dark Lord, right?” Blaise asked, seriously worried about this possibility. The Dark Lord could not be allowed to find out about Potter and Draco.

“Snape said not. In fact he called me an imbecile with no brains or common sense for even considering it. He really doesn’t like me. He did let me know that Voldemort is now aware of the connection and may use it to try and get to me somehow, so that’s great.”

“Why would Snape tell you that? I thought he was on the Dark Lord’s side. I know he’s a Death Eater.” Draco asked.

“He’s a spy. Dumbledore is convinced he’s on his side, and Voldemort is convinced Snape’s his. Not really sure what side he’s actually on though. Definitely means we can’t trust him.”

“Why are you telling us all of this? You know Draco’s father is a Death Eater, and you have no reason to trust me. You don’t even know me.” Blaise was very confused by Potter’s candour.

“Not a clue.”

“I think it’s the stressed link. It’s pulling us together. I think it’s a bit like when you trusted me after your detention the first time, only magnified.” Draco answered. It was the only logical explanation any of them could come up with. Which was probably going to be as good as it got until they actually worked out what exactly the thing between Harry and Draco was.

“Okay, so you two are going to be spilling secrets to each other as well as being unable to go more than five minutes without touching.”

“Seems likely.” Potter laughed, although Blaise didn’t see the humour in the situation. “So what did Snape say to you? What’s your excuse for becoming ill and being here?”

“The consensus seems to be that I’ve developed an eating disorder and had some kind of mental breakdown. I get to have all my meals monitored until I can persuade them I’m cured – and see a Mind Healer. Could be worse. Somehow, he didn’t think it was odd, or even apparently notice, that we both got ill at exactly the same time.”

“That would definitely be worse. Umm… I do have one odd observation at the moment I want to ask about. Zabini, it’s about you stroking Draco’s wrist.”

“I can stop if you want.” Blaise said quickly.

“No. Please don’t. It feels nice.” Harry interjected before Blaise could move his hand away.

“It feels…?”

“Yeah. Only ever had shared pain before as far as I’m aware. And other people touching either made me want to throw up, or at best felt wrong, my godfather being a slight exception in that it just didn’t feel right, as opposed to actually wrong, if that makes any sense.”

“Not really but continue.” Blaise said, feeling more puzzled than ever.

“I got the same feeling with Blaise before, the not right feeling. It definitely seems different now. Might be because we’re together at the moment, not apart.”

“You guys seriously need to find out what is going on between you. This is very likely to cause no end of trouble. We’re also going to have to test distances you can be apart within the castle, as well as time limits between you needing contact.”

The three of them spent the rest of the afternoon making a plan. Potter relayed that Snape had informed him his friends wouldn’t be coming back to the castle before the start of term, which was a relief, and that his Godfather was unable to come, due to his wanted criminal status. That had shocked Blaise at first, but Draco seemed to accept it pretty quickly. He’d already known Sirius Black was innocent. Their conversations were intermittently interrupted by the school nurse coming in to check on Draco and Harry, as well as feed them more potions. When it came to dinner Blaise watched Draco roll his eyes at the scrutiny that was paid to every mouthful he ate. Somehow the same attention wasn’t paid to Potter. Blaise didn’t know how the dark-haired boys severe weight loss wasn’t noticed and being fussed over too. None of them pointed this out, however. They didn’t want to cause more questions to be asked. Blaise made a mental note to keep an eye on Potter’s eating habits. If no one else was going to do it, which seemed likely, he would. 

They ended up staying in the hospital wing for a further two days before they were released, thankfully at the same time. Blaise had managed, somehow, to persuade the nurse to let him stay with Draco as the Slytherin dorms were empty at the moment. She wasn’t pleased about it but allowed him to take the bed next to his friend’s. By the end of the two days, Blaise was exhausted. He had had to ensure that the beds were separated every time Pomfrey came to check up on them. Day and night. Once they had left the hospital wing, the question was then what to do next. Draco wanted to go down to the dungeons and stay there, as it was empty. Blaise didn’t think it was a great idea though, as Professor Snape could walk in on them down there, and there was no way they’d be able to hide Potter if he turned up. It was Potter that came up with the best place to stay. He showed them up to the 7th floor corridor and proceeded to walk back and forth three times. To Blaise’s surprise a door appeared and when they walked inside, he looked around in amazement at the room.

“It’s called the room of requirement.” Potter explained. “It can make itself into pretty much any type of room you want.”

“How do you know about it?” Draco asked whilst simultaneously pulling Potter to the couch. Blaise moved to sit on the other sofa opposite the pair.

“It’s the room where we have our defence club meetings.”

“You have defence club. I’m fairly certain that isn’t Umbridge approved.” Draco laughed.

“Yeah, well the bitch isn’t exactly teaching us anything, so Hermione decided that we’d have to do it ourselves. It’s all in secret. We have these coins that allow us to communicate when the meetings take place.” Harry said.

“Fun. We’re just learning in the Slytherin common room. The NEWT students are particularly pissed off at the lack of practical learning and they weren’t going to let her stop them getting the grades they want.” Blaise responded.

“That would probably be less risky than what we’re doing, but we have people from multiple houses learning with us.”

“What are you all learning then?” Draco asked, curiously.

“Well we’ve been doing basic offensive and defensive charms and jinxes mostly. Although when the holidays are done, I’m going to be teaching them the patronus charm.”

“You can do a patronus charm?” Blaise said, shocked.

“Since third year.” Harry grinned. “Want to see?” 

Both Blaise and Draco nodded in response and watched as Potter performed the charm. A large silver tiger shot out of Potter’s wand.

“Well that’s different.” Harry said, bewildered with the change in form.

“Wasn’t it corporeal before?” Draco inquired.

“No it was corporeal; it just wasn’t a tiger. It was a stag. No idea why it’s different though. I suppose it’s not important.”

“Maybe…” Blaise didn’t sound very sure. A change in Patronus form was always significant and he had a feeling Potter’s had changed because of the weird bond.

“Well, it’s just one more thing to add to the list of things to look into. Do you two want to learn how to produce one? It took me bloody ages, but if we start now, hopefully you’ll have it by the end of the year.” Potter sounded genuinely enthusiastic about teaching the two Slytherins a charm that many people never mastered.

Both Draco and Blaise agreed, feeling excited and caught up in Potter’s enthusiasm, even though they probably had more important things to do than this. Harry spent the next hour going over the basics. When it came time for them both to try, they were surprised by the results. 

“Fuck… I did it.” Draco exclaimed, watching his own tiger run around the room. Harry let his out as well and the two tigers proceeded to chase and pounce on each other playfully.

“That was an easy answer to the change of form. You match. I’m assuming because of whatever link you share. Also, how is it fair that Draco gets it on his first attempt, and I’m stuck with this shimmery mist.”

“Hey, don’t diss the shimmery mist. That’s incredible for a first attempt, Zabini.” Harry replied, although his eyes didn’t shift their focus from the silver tigers gambolling around the room. “Still, it does seem a little unfair that Draco doesn’t even have to work at it.” He said, when he was eventually able to tear his eyes from the patronuses.

“I don’t think I could do it if I wasn’t touching you.” Draco said to Harry. Harry and Draco were curled up next to each other on the sofa with their fingers intertwined. “We can work on that later though. Pomfrey will be pissed if I miss dinner, which means we need to leave for the hospital wing.”

“How are we actually going to manage that? I don’t think you two should be out of contact yet. Every time you stop touching at the moment, you both seem to regress. You in particular Draco. When Pomfrey is watching you eat, I can see you having to force it down, and that was with Potter in the room. Potter can’t be seen coming back to the hospital wing with us.”

“Actually I have an idea about that.” Harry said, rummaging in the trunk that had been sent back from Grimmauld Place the day before, and pulling out his invisibility cloak. “I won’t be seen and will be able to stay in contact throughout your entire meal.”

“Invisibility cloak… really Harry. You’re a complete bastard you know that. That’s how your head appeared in Hogsmeade back in third year.” Draco scowled at the memory of mud being flung at him by the shrieking shack.

Harry sent back a sheepish grin.

“It’s how I got away with a lot of crap. But now it is at your service so you can please the school nurse and eat a meal without feeling like you’re going to throw up. In return I expect you to help me eat as well. We can raid the kitchens when we’re done with your supervised meal. I really hope these delightful side effects stop at some point, or at least ease off. If they don’t, there is no way we can keep this from people.”

“We really need to do some research. Find out whether this has ever happened before and what to expect.” They had just over a week before the rest of the school came back, and Blaise thought it was of the upmost important to at least get started on understanding what was going on between the Gryffindor and Slytherin former rivals. 

“Not today… tomorrow can be research day. After the hell of the last few weeks I’d rather just spend the evening relaxing.” Harry said, and Draco agreed wholeheartedly.

The plan went better than any of the trio could have hoped. Madame Pomfrey seemed over the moon at seeing Draco eat a whole meal without wincing or making a fuss. Both Draco and Blaise were surprised at how easy raiding the kitchen was, with the house elves practically falling over themselves to give Harry food, whilst they hid under the invisibility cloak. The next problem didn’t arise till it came time to go to bed.

“Given you don’t need me at night to check for unexpected visitors, I should probably head back to the dungeons. It’s getting late.” Blaise said just before 10pm. He wanted to help, but he couldn’t help but feel like he wasn’t really part of this situation, and they didn’t need him the same way now they had somewhere private to sleep.

“What do you mean? You’re not staying?” Draco sounded upset at the suggestion.

“Well…”

“Blaise, please stay. The dungeons will be empty apart from you and I want you to stay.”

“But…”

“I’m fairly certain part of the reason the two of us have managed to not resort to slinging insults at each other is your presence, and I really don’t think this weird link will be able to take us fighting right now.” Draco argued. “This thing may make me and Harry behave differently towards each other most of the time, and with what happened at Christmas it seems to be affecting our behaviour significantly, but we’re still us. We’re still perfectly capable of pissing each other off.” 

Blaise actually wasn’t so sure about that, but Harry was nodding in agreement. He came up with another argument. He needed a break from his jealousy at seeing them curled around each other.

“There’s only one bed.” 

Blaise was right. For some reason, the room had only provided one bed, although it was certainly large enough for three.

“I don’t know why the room didn’t make a second bed for you.” Harry said, sounding slightly confused.

“I suppose I could sleep on the sofa.” Blaise said sounding unsure. As soon as he’d spoke both sofas disappeared. Draco started to laugh.

“The bloody room wants you to share a bed with us. What’s the betting if you try to leave for the night it won’t let you. This room clearly knows more than we do about this freaky link thing. I say we don’t argue.” The smile on Draco’s face was so light-hearted, and such a contrast to the hell of seeing him deteriorate physically and mentally for nearly 2 months.

“Potter… What do you think?” Blaise asked, resigning himself to the torture of lying next to the person he wanted, and the boy they were intrinsically attached to in a way Blaise could neither understand, nor interfere with. Still, Blaise didn’t really know the other boy, having only spoken to him since he arrived a few days ago. They seemed to be becoming friends now, but Blaise didn’t know whether this new friendship extended to sleeping in the same bed.

“I think you should call me Harry. And I also think Draco is right… wow never thought I’d be saying that… you seem to stabilise us for some reason. Even in the worst of it you could still touch Draco without negative effects right. My Godfather was the one who could do it for me. Maybe this thing needs a… balance – not sure if that the right word – but a something, especially when it’s fragile.”

“If you really think it’s best...” Blaise’s uncertainty came through in his voice. Then slightly stronger he said. “But if I’m going to call you Harry, you have to call me Blaise.”

“I can do that. Do you need to get your things from the dungeons? I dragged mine from the hospital wing, but neither you nor Draco have anything here.”

“I can grab mine and Draco’s stuff. Or we can all go together.” Hopefully, they’d decide Blaise could go alone. It would give him some breathing room at least before he had to come back here and deal with the one bed.

“How about you go. I’d quite like a shower and it’s going to be awkward enough having to do it with Draco touching me the entire time, let alone knowing you’re here too. I think we’ll be okay for half an hour.”

Blaise got back to the room 40 minutes later and was surprised to see neither Draco nor Harry. He cautiously approached the door to the bathroom the room had provided and knocked.

“Come in Blaise.” Draco shouted. 

“Yeah. This room is bloody amazing. Also we had an idea.” Harry added.

Blaise entered the bathroom and was surprised to see an enormous bath sunken into the floor in the middle of the room with the two ex-rivals leant against each other in the water.

“I thought you were each going to have a quick shower. What’s with the bath?” Blaise was acutely aware that both boys were naked under the water – they hadn’t even used bubbles so there was nothing to obscure his view. He didn’t quite know where to look. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen the other boys in the showers in the dungeons, but this felt very different.

“The room seemed to know better again and decided we were to bath together. Strip off and join us.” Draco said, humour evident in his voice. “We want to test something.”

“Is this one of the reasons I shouldn’t leave you alone?” The blond and the dark-haired boy had conspiratorial looks on their faces. They were definitely up to something.

“Quite possibly. But you have to get in here. It’s better the prefect’s bath”

“Yeah, this one seems to be free of voyeuristic ghosts.” Harry snorted.

“I think I’m going to ask you about that one later, Harry. Look, come on Blaise. We had an idea about the link and you stabilising it.”

“You know, the longer you’re able to stay in contact, the weirder this gets. Also I don’t see how you two came to the conclusion I am somehow stabilising your weird bond.” Blaise was sure he wasn’t important to this. He just happened to be the one there when they desperately needed someone to stop them dying in the cold, and then to help them keep their secret. Anyone could have done it. Anyone would have done it. The thing was, that wasn’t true. Most people would have helped by taking them back to the hospital wing. Wouldn’t have worked so hard to keep this a secret. Would have tried to separate the two boys and that would have spelt disaster. More importantly, no one else would have been able to make the two of them stop paying attention to each other to the exclusion of everything else. Blaise was their co-conspirator in the essential task of keeping them together. Even when he’d suggested research, there was no thought of looking for a way to break the bond, as most people would have suggested given the two boys history with each other and them being on opposite sides of the war. The bond knew. There was something else as well, something they’d only gotten hints at. Blaise helped keep them together, but he also allowed them to come apart. Allowed them to not get overtaken by the link entirely to the exclusion of all other needs. They’d learn this eventually, but for the moment, Blaise felt unimportant.

“In now. We can discuss the bizarrity of this whole thing when you’re in here. It’s nothing either of us haven’t seen before.” Then he looked over to Harry and his eyes gleamed with mirth. “Actually it probably is something new to Harry. Unless you’ve been keeping something secret from me.” Draco smirk was flirtatious as he spoke. This broke Blaise slightly. It didn’t feel fair to have Draco flirting with him when it wasn’t something he could have.

“I have absolutely never seen Blaise naked. Doesn’t really bother me though.” Harry shrugged and gave Blaise a look that Blaise could have sworn contained desire. One that said it absolutely did bother him, just not in a bad way. Blaise deflected, not wanting to think about that look.

“How did you two get from feeling awkward about having to shower whilst keeping some kind of contact to leaning against each other naked in a bath.”

“Not really sure. When we got in the bathroom, the shower we saw earlier had disappeared and this giant bath was here. Now join us, Zabini.” Harry said, the conspiratorial look was back. Harry was definitely hiding something.

“I thought you were going to call me Blaise. And after this I will absolutely have to insist on it.” Blaise said, shaking his head and started stripping out of his clothes. There didn’t seem to be much choice in the matter. The two of them weren’t going to let this go, and the bath did look appealing. It was also large enough that he could stay far enough away from them to not let them know about his rouge feelings. “I’d appreciate it if both of you closed your eyes whilst I get in.”

Draco and Harry complied, and Blaise removed his boxers and slid into the water. He positioned himself on the far side of the bath from the other two.

“You can open them now. I’m in.”

“You’re a very long way away. And we can’t test our theory if you’re that far away.” Draco whined.

“You sound drunk, Draco.” He’d seen drunk Draco that summer, during the week the blond boy escaped the Manor for a holiday in Italy. They’d both ended up drinking rather a lot of wine. Blaise’s mother had not been pleased, but it had made for a fun night. The way Draco was talking now was definitely an indication of at least some degree of intoxication.

“That would probably be the fault of the alcohol.” Draco admitted.

“Where did you get alcohol?” Blaise sighed. He was right, and looking at Harry, he realised that the other boy was probably a little drunk too.

“The room provided. It can’t do food, but it certainly can do whiskey.” Harry ginned. Definitely drunk. And now Blaise was left being the sensible one, supervising the two idiots who were absolutely a bad influence on each other. Before this whole link thing he’d see enough of Draco’s obsession with Harry Potter to know he brought the worst out of his friend; made him more spiteful than he usually was and knowing how to press all the right buttons to get Harry furious at him. To get Harry to pay attention to him. From his observations, Blaise though Harry wasn’t much better. Blaise didn’t know whether provoking each other into fights was any worse than what was going on now. Now they looked like they were plotting something together, and he couldn’t see how that could end well.

“So you decided to drink it?”

“It was really weird getting into the bath together, and both of us were hesitating to do it. The room clearly understood that and provided us with something to make it easier. I think the room likes us. It helped us to talk too. I know we’ve been blurting secrets out to each other for a few days now, but we haven’t really been able to approach the topic of this link properly. Drinking made it easier. And it gave both of us an idea.” Harry said.

“We think the reason you can touch us is to do with trust, or maybe with how you were the first one to try and help me with this link. I trust you above everyone else, which is why I think it didn’t feel wrong for you to touch me.”

“And I’m the same with Siri. He’s the one who got me away from everyone and stayed by my bed whilst I was unconscious. He’s also the only kind of parent I can remember.”

“Once the link wasn’t strained when you touched me, it stopped feeling just… not wrong, but started feeling right.”

“For both of us.”

“And we want to see how far that extends.”

“And for that you’re probably going to need to get closer. And probably have a drink.”

The two of them spoke as if they were one person, and it was a little unnerving. Especially with how enthusiastic the two of them sounded about whatever half-baked plan they’d come up with. Blaise watched as a tumbler appeared on the edge of the bath near Harry, and then noticed the half empty bottle of whiskey and two other glasses that they’d obviously been using earlier. Alcohol seemed to be the only way to deal with this whole mess of a situation. 

“What do you want me to do?” Blaise sighed. In for a knut, in for a galleon he supposed. 

“Well to start with you can scoot next to Harry and have a very large drink. It’ll make this less weird.”

Blaise did as he was told, although he had no clue what the two of them wanted. Getting closer was both something he desired and wanted to avoid at the same time. He downed the amber liquid Harry had poured. Harry then topped up all their glasses. Alcohol was absolutely the solution to his conflicted feelings for the moment.

“Okay, now you’ve started catching up. How do you feel about Draco?”

This wasn’t exactly what Blaise had expected, although he wasn’t quite sure what exactly he did expect.

“Odd question.”

“Just answer, Blaise.” Draco chastised. Blaise couldn’t help the blush that rose to his cheeks.

“I… Draco you’re my best friend.”

“But you want more than that. I didn’t realise before, but it’s true, isn’t it?”

Blaise couldn’t answer but his silence was enough.

“Blaise. I don’t mind that you want more.” Draco said softly and reached across Harry to take Blaise’s hand and linked their fingers.

“Draco… don’t… not if you don’t…”

“Blaise. You holding Draco’s hand feels nice. If he didn’t want to do it, then it would be making at least one, if not both, of us feel ill.” Harry answered.

“But the two of you…”

“Clearly have some weird magic tying us together. This is why we want to try this.” Draco said. Then added softly. “Do you think it would be okay if Harry tried touching you?”

This was even more confusing for Blaise, but he was getting caught up in the magic of the two of them.

“Why?” Blaise eventually managed to ask. The intensity of the situation was starting to get to him.

“Because Harry and I aren’t able to stop touching each other, but we also both seem to want you here. When you said you were going to leave it made me feel a little panicked, and not just me. And because when the two of us touch it feels just as good to Harry as it does to me, and we want to see whether it works the other way around.”

“Also because we’re all teenage boys and outside of link induced pain and depression, there are certain needs that are becoming all too apparent right now.” Harry smirked, and Draco blushed.

“But doesn’t this just mean the two of you…”

“The link and the room want you here for a reason that we don’t know. Both me and Draco are running mostly off instinct at this point. If we tried to be logical about this, I think we’d both end up unconscious in the hospital wing again. Besides, it’s not like you’re not fun to look at.”

Blaise snorted at the teasing. It made this whole thing feel a little less weird. He looked at the two other boys. He had a similar feeling to Harry’s statement. It was rather fun to look at the two naked boys in the bath. Alcohol was definitely helping. The room felt smug. It had known what to do. It could feel the magic of the three of them and wanted them to be happy and together. It was important.

“You want to touch me, Harry.” Blaise said with a flirtatious intensity. Letting his nerves take a back seat and feeling a lot less shy about what was happening.

“I don’t think you know how much I want to touch you right now.” Harry eyes boring into Blaise’s, capturing him in the green depths.

“I’m sure Blaise can imagine” Draco said, catching Harry’s lips in his own. Alcohol and the magic of the room lubricating their interactions, almost as much as the instincts the bond was pulling from them.

“I’m going to run my fingers across your jaw and down your chest. I want to see how Draco responds.” Harry said, when he and Draco had stopped kissing.

Harry did exactly as he said he would, and Blaise watched the reaction that could be described in no other way than arousal on Draco’s face.

“Hmm… I see that had the response we expected.”

“Fuck Harry, I get what you mean now. It’s… different and…”

“Almost better than when we touch.” Harry replied and Blaise watched as Harry’s hand stroked Draco’s thigh. It caused a brief twinge of jealousy in the Italian.

“No need for that Blaise.” Draco had clearly seen Blaise’s response to Harry touching him. “This link has for some reason included you. I can feel when Harry touches you and vice versa. I think we’ve determined that you can’t feel when we touch each other, but that doesn’t exclude you from this.” Draco leant across Harry and trailed kisses from his collar bone, finishing by teasing his tongue along Blaise’s lower lip.

“Draco… don’t do this to me… not if its him you want…” Blaise voiced the last of his uncertainty. It was rapidly dissipating with everything else that was happening.

“I want both of you.” Draco breathed.

“I want both of you too, if that helps.”

“Why?” Blaise was almost gasping as the two other boys ran their fingers down his sides, Harry having moved so Blaise was between the two of them.

“Feels good.”

“It feels right. We may need to touch each other. But I think it’s clear that both of us want to touch you.”

Harry was right, strange bonds aside, this felt good. Blaise had wanted Draco for a while, and even though he’d never thought about doing this with Harry before, it wasn’t like he wasn’t attractive. And the more time he spent around the Gryffindor, watching Draco with him, the more attractive he got. He was also a sixteen-year-old boy who was naked in a bath with two boys looking and him and touching him like he was a prize they’d wanted all their lives. They could think it over in the morning. Tonight they could just enjoy. It was the first night they spent together. The night the bond completely accepted Blaise into it. Not connected in the same way but connected and linked to the two of them just as tightly as they were connected to each other. 


	4. Chapter 3 - Fifth year part 3 - A name for the Bond

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The room of requirement provides invaluable advise. Harry has to learn how to sneak around behind his friends backs.

The three of them spent their days in the Room of Requirement, only going out for food, and to try and rummage through the library. Their research wasn’t going very well. They could find nothing even remotely similar to what was going on between Harry and Draco in any of the books. The room was a god send though. The only thing it seemed it couldn’t provide was food or drink, barring alcohol for some reason. In fact it was very good at producing contraband. They spent one rather delightful evening passing round a joint and telling stories about their childhoods and the previous years at Hogwarts. Harry didn’t share much about his childhood, it was something he didn’t like to think about, let alone talk about. He’d told Draco some of it before, and he was sure Blaise had guessed from the few things he’d said, as well as the scars littering his body, that his home life was bad. He did tell them some of the more fun stories though, and both Slytherins very much enjoyed the story of the boa constrictor at the zoo. The next night the room had provided a bag of dried mushrooms, which Draco absolutely refused to let them take, as he couldn’t be sure of the variety. Draco in fact had stomped his foot at the room and it almost felt like the room sighed in response as it took the bag away, replacing it with three brightly coloured tabs with little faces on them. Harry informed them that it was LSD. Neither Blaise nor Draco had heard of the muggle drug, but it had made for a very interesting night. None of them knew exactly why the room seemed to want them to spend their evenings get drunk or high. Harry thought the room was just bored and found them entertaining. The more time the spent in here, the more obvious it became that this room was sentient. As well as liking seeing them dancing round like idiots off their faces, it got this smug little glow whenever they played around with the physical aspects of the bond and behaved like the bunch of teenagers they were, exploring each other’s bodies. This room may not have voyeuristic ghosts, but it certainly appeared to be a bit of a voyeur itself. The room did enjoy the entertainment, but it was more than that. It enjoyed the taste and swirl of their magic and did whatever it could to make them happy. To let them have fun. Magic was sweeter when the three of them were enjoying themselves and allowing the bond between them to grow.

As well as spending their evenings trying whatever illicit substance the room provided and their newly found ability to use the bond for pleasure, rather than pain, they tested the less fun parts of the link. By the day before the rest of the students came back, Harry and Draco were able to be apart for about two hours before they started to notice the uncomfortable feelings coming back, and about six hours before it became unbearable. The time was shorter if Blaise wasn’t with one of them, which lead credence to their theory of him stabilising the bond in some way. If they let it go the full length of time, however, they had had to spend the next twelve hours in constant contact. They’d only tried it once. They thought that between lunch breaks and their shared classes they should be able to manage, especially as the bond no longer required them to touch quite so much to be satisfied, unless it had been strained. Although that may have had something to do with how much they touched anyway. They had also made plans that they would all spend a lot of time in the library. Harry thought it would be pretty easy to persuade Hermione to spend free time in there, and it meant they could be in the same room for extended periods of time without anyone getting suspicious. They’d also discovered a lot more about the room. One evening when they were bored and drunk, Blaise had suggested hide and seek around the castle. The room seemed to object to them leaving and had made the main door disappear at the suggestion. Instead it had formed and opened a door at the back into a vast room full of hordes of junk. It was perfect for hide and seek and lead them to discover where the room was getting all of the alcohol and drugs from. It was clear the room of requirement had been used to hide things by students for centuries, and the room was able to bring things from there to them when it felt like.

None of them, especially Draco and Harry, were happy about the return of the rest of the school. It wasn’t that Harry didn’t want to see his friends, he did. He had missed them, and he felt incredibly guilty for disappearing on them like that, especially on Christmas, but he knew that the happy bubble he’d been living in with Draco and Blaise would have to end. That they’d have to go back to pretending they hated each other. They would have to go back to sleeping separately. None of them knew how they would actually manage that, but no matter how much they thought on the issue, they couldn’t come up with a good solution. The best they could think of was just to push through it. It was morosely that that packed up their things from the room. The room seemed to be sulking with them but didn’t try to keep them there, or at least the door was still apparent. They said their goodbyes at the door and then Harry made his way up to the tower with his things as Blaise and Draco walked hand in hand with their way down to the dungeon.

Harry made himself comfortable in the common room after dumping his trunk at the end of his bed. He hadn’t felt like unpacking it, so he didn’t bother. He grabbed a book to read but couldn’t really concentrate. His mind was with Draco and Blaise in the Slytherin dorms. Wondering what they were doing, and whether they missed him as much as he missed them.

“Harry!” Hermione cried when she came through the portrait. “We were so worried.” She threw her arms around him. The nauseous feeling wasn’t as bad as it had been before, and he was able to hug her back with only minimal discomfort.

“Yeah, mate. Mum went mental when she found out you were missing.” Ron added.

“Sorry about that. I just…” Harry didn’t quite know what to say. He knew the others must all have been worried about him, but his mind had been so preoccupied with Draco and Blaise and the bond, that it hadn’t left much time for thinking about the other people in his life.

“You’re not possessed. Ginny shouted at us all for thinking you were, saying she would know as she actually had been possessed by Voldemort. You should have come back. Snuffles missed you terribly. He was really down.” Hermione said in her no-nonsense voice.

Harry felt guilty. Extremely guilty. Sirius had been so good to him, cared for him whilst he was sick, and he’d just abandoned him without a word at Christmas. He needed to talk to Sirius and explain. He didn’t know how it was possible though. Umbridge had blocked all ways of communication from them. He didn’t want to talk to Hermione and Ron about Sirius though. The only people he wanted to talk about his godfather to were Blaise and Draco. He shied away from the topic and Instead he talked about the other point Hermione had made.

“Snape explained the whole not possessed thing when he came to see me in the hospital wing. Look can we go up to the dorm to talk about this, rather than doing it in the common room.”

“Of course, Harry.”

The trio made their way upstairs and made themselves comfortable on Harry’s bed.

“So, are you going to tell us what happened?” Hermione asked.

Harry felt extremely resistant about doing so, but knew they wouldn’t drop it unless he told them something.

“I don’t really know how to explain it. I think I was probably still pretty sick and not really thinking straight when I left. Zabini, one of the Slytherins, found me wandering round the castle and took me to the hospital wing.” He decided it was best to give them at least some of the truth, or at least the truth that matched what other people thought had happened. “I ended up having to spend a few days there. Whatever happened with Voldemort that night did a bit of a number on me, and then when I was well enough to leave, Madame Pomfrey didn’t want me leaving the castle and arguing with her is always more trouble than it’s worth.”

“What did you do here mostly by yourself? And Zabini, isn’t he one of _Malfoy’s_ friends?” Ron sneered Draco’s name.

“I mostly just hung out here and read and did my homework. And yeah, he’s one of Malfoy’s friends.” Harry had to remember not to slip use Draco’s first name.

“And he helped you?” Hermione sounded confused.

“Yes. Well, he took me to the hospital wing.”

“I suppose he’s never acted like Malfoy has. I don’t really know anything about him.” Hermione opined. 

“Anyway, that’s not important.” Harry moved the conversation on from Blaise and Draco. His friends would only get suspicious if they talked longer on the topic. “Snape told me he’s going to be giving me occlumency lessons.”

“What’s that? And why’s the git going to be teaching it to you?” Ron huffed.

“It’s used as a mental protection against foreign intruders.” Harry said. He had actually managed to do a fair amount of reading and had already started the basic mind clearing exercises with Draco and Blaise’s help. They had as much invested in him learning occlumency as Harry did. Snape couldn’t learn about the three of them. No one could. Except maybe Sirius. They had all talked about letting Harry’s godfather in on the secret. Harry had a theory that Sirius could be like Blaise. The thought of him being exactly like Blaise was extremely weird and something that would never happen. Both Draco and Harry believed, however, that like Blaise, Sirius would keep their secret and protect the bond and them. Harry wanted to tell him in person though, not via a letter that could potentially be intercepted, so for the time being he’d have to remain in the dark. “Dumbledore wants me to learn it in order to prevent things like what happened before Christmas. Supposedly Snape is the best for the job. He uses it in order to keep his status as a spy.”

“I’ll look into occlumency for you. I’m sure there are some useful books in the library about it.” Hermione said, and Harry had to smile. Back for less than half an hour and Hermione already had her next research project planned and wanted to go to the library.

“Thanks. That would be great.” Harry was starting to feel the bond tugging at him. He’d been too far from Draco for too long. “Why don’t we go down and get some lunch?”

“Sounds good to me, mate.” Ron grinned at the suggestion of food

The three of them made their way to the Great Hall. Harry took his old seat, from where he would be able to see Draco at his usual place. Being able to see each other helped greatly with the strain of the bond. Draco walked in less than a minute after he’d sat down, dragging Blaise behind him. He almost looked like he was going to come straight over to Harry before Blaise whispered in his ear. Harry smiled at the slight huff Draco gave in response to whatever Blaise said. Draco was much less able to cope with the pulls and strains of the bond than Harry was, and Harry was infinitely grateful that Draco was the one that got to keep Blaise by his side, however much he would have liked the comfort. Once Draco was sat down and their eyes met, Harry found eating was much easier. Paying attention to the conversations around him was a challenge, as all he wanted to do was stare at Draco.

“Harry!” Hermione exclaimed.

“What?” Harry was pulled out of his dazed distraction.

“Have you been paying attention at all?”

“Um… Sorry, it’s just a bit weird having all these people around. I guess I got used to the hall being almost empty at mealtimes.” Harry couldn’t think of a better excuse. 

“I was just asking what you wanted to do now?”

“I guess we could go to the library.” Harry replied. “You know, to find some books on Occlumency.” 

“You want to go to the library, mate.” Ron looked a little surprised.

“Urrr. Yeah. This protecting my mind thing is important.”

“Of course it’s important. We should absolutely go.” Hermione said. “I’m glad you’re taking this so seriously.”

Harry smiled. “Well, Dumbledore thinks it’s important, so it must be. Come on. I think I’m just about done with eating.” 

The three of them got up and left the Great Hall and made their way to the library. When they were about half-way there Harry sensed that Draco was following them. The strain on the bond eased as soon as he noticed. He knew he’d have to touch Draco soon though. It had been more than three hours now since they’d touched, and they’d been completely separated for more than two of those hours. 

Hermione went into full research mode when they entered the library. She immediately rushed off to go find whatever books she could on mind magic. Harry and Ron found a table and sat and waited. Blaise and Draco had come in less than five minutes after them and placed themselves a couple of tables away. 

“I’m going to go see if I can find something useful.”

“Why? Hermione will just bring back what she thinks you should read.” Ron huffed.

“Because sitting here and waiting isn’t exactly productive.”

“You could do some of the holiday homework with me. I still have Snapes essay for potions to finish.”

“I’ve already done all of mine.” Harry had completed his with Draco’s help. In Harry’s opinion, Draco was much better at teaching than their professor. Harry thought that maybe, this time, he’d actually get a decent grade for the work. “I didn’t have much else to do over the holidays. You should get started though. You only have two days to finish it and Hermione will go spare if you don’t.”

“Yeah. I guess. If you’re done, do you want to help me?”

Harry glanced over at Draco who had tilted his head, seeming to indicate he wanted Harry to come with him to one of the more secluded spots of the library.

“I will in a bit. I’ll go and find you the books I used.” 

Harry got up and walked in the direction Draco had indicated. He found Draco and Blaise waiting for him. Draco immediately wrapped himself around Harry.

“Fuck, this is harder than I thought it would be.”

“I know. It is easier when we’re in the same room, but it’s not the same as this.” Harry trailed kisses up Draco’s neck and then began to tease at Draco’s ear with his tongue, causing the blonde Slytherin to moan in a very satisfactory manner. Harry’s hands crept inside Draco’s robes.

“You know, I’m starting to feel very left out.” There was a hint of humour in Blaise’s words, although Harry could tell he was being serious.

“Sorry, Blaise.” Draco and Harry said in unison. Harry reached out to pull Blaise into a kiss, although he kept his hand around Draco’s waist.

“Better?” Harry asked, when he broke away.

“Much. And it’s not as if I don’t know how you two can get. I’ve spent the last week with you. You two are insufferable if you’re parted for too long. How bad was it?”

“Wasn’t hurting, just a bit uncomfortable.” Harry replied.

“It was better once we were both in the same place, but the need to touch appeared about 20 minutes ago. I think it was slightly more than two hours before I felt the pull. And what, three and a half hours before it was starting to become insistent.” Draco added.

“Yeah. I reckon it was about fifteen minutes longer than we’ve managed before.” Harry was pleased with the development, but it still didn’t feel like long enough. They had to keep people from finding out.

“That’s something.”

“I guess. Look, I better get back to Ron now. I said I’d bring him back some books for his potions essay and I actually need to dig them out before I do.”

“Here, take mine.” Draco said, grabbing a handful of books out of his bag. “I was going to return them to the library today, so just make sure you put them back on the shelves correctly so Pince doesn’t have a go at me.”

“Thanks. I’ll try and keep us in the library till curfew.” Harry leant in and let his mouth capture Draco’s. He felt Draco’s hands in his hair. The overwhelming feeling that he couldn’t let Draco go was starting to take over. He felt Blaise put his hand on his shoulder and he came back to himself.

“Sorry. Got lost again.” Draco panted, echoing Harry’s thoughts. Getting lost in each other happened on a relatively frequent basis, and if it wasn’t for Blaise they were fairly certain they would end up dying locked in the room of requirement having forgotten to eat or drink. It was a slightly worrying prospect. They could only hope that over time the overwhelming obsession would ease off, the same as the distance and touching aspects. For the time being, however, Blaise was able to pull them out. 

“I could see that. Go on. Off with you Harry. Before one of your friends thinks to come looking. I’ll be with Draco the whole time. I won’t let go of him. You know you can do this, and I’ll help him.” Blaise said seriously. 

“I know you will.” Harry reached and kissed Blaise. “I don’t know how we’d manage without you.” He whispered into Blaise’s mouth.

“You’re stronger than you know. And wondering about it doesn’t matter. You have me. That’s what’s important.”

“Okay. I’m going.” Harry said, giving both of their hands a tight squeeze before turning and walking away.

Harry did manage to keep him, Ron, and Hermione in the library till closing time. Walking away, Harry could feel each inch of separation between himself and Draco. Their ten minutes together had helped, but it was like the bond knew that they wouldn’t see each other again till morning. Harry wondered whether this would have happened if they hadn’t strained this strange phenomenon to breaking point, or whether it was always inevitable that they’d end up in this state. Back in the common room, and therefore away from Draco, Harry found he couldn’t concentrate. Just after 10pm he gave up and announced he was going to bed. The tug was just starting, and he knew he’d be fit company for no one pretty soon. He led in bed and tried some of the occlumency exercises Draco had suggested to him a few nights before. Both Draco and Blaise had had some training in the mind magic, but Draco was better at it. He heard the others come to bed about 11pm, Ron had asked him whether he was okay, but he pretended to be asleep and ignored him. Sleep wouldn’t come though. Just after midnight he gave up. He slipped on the invisibility cloak and made his way out of the tower.

“Blaise. I can’t do this.” Draco whined.

“You can. You can do this.” Blaise tried to reassure him and wrapped Draco tighter in his arms. They were both in Draco’s bed. It had gotten a few odd looks when they had both gotten into one bed that evening. Neither of them really cared about the rest of their dorm mates knowing that the two of them were in a relationship, however. It was only the third member of their little trio that no one could know about. Draco knew his father wouldn’t be best pleased if he heard he was with another boy, but as long as Draco reassured him that it wasn’t anything serious there shouldn’t be any grave consequences. He’d just have to tell him it was a physical thing, a bit of fun whilst at school, and that it was better than him being with a girl and accidently producing a bastard child. 

“I can’t.” Draco insisted. “We have to leave. We have to go to him.” It was the same tone he’d used when persuading Blaise to take him from the hospital wing that day. The one that held pain and longing. The one Blaise was seemingly unable to resist.

“Draco… It’s too risky. And anyway, it’s not like you can get into Gryffindor tower.”

“I… I know… I just… I need to get closer.”

Blaise let out a huge sigh. “Fine. We’ll go and get closer to the tower for a little while. Hopefully, if you’re at least nearer to Harry, it won’t be as bad. There has to be an empty classroom near to there we can stay in for the night.”

Draco smiled in relief. Closer was better than nothing. Why did Slytherin and Gryffindor had to be so far away from each other? Distance made everything worse. 

The two of them crept out of the dungeons and through the corridors towards the tower. Unlike Harry, they didn’t have a map that showed them the location of everyone in the castle, nor an invisibility cloak, so they had to be careful not to get caught. It turned out they didn’t have to get all the way to the tower, however. Draco felt the direction of the tug start to change, and he instinctively knew that Harry had left his common room. There was only one place he could be heading. Draco changed their course towards the room of requirement. 

“Oh thank Merlin.” Draco exclaimed and threw himself into Harry’s arms the second they entered the room. 

They spent several long minutes just staring at each other, hands roaming and touching to make sure the other was really there.

“I… couldn’t sleep.” Harry admitted.

“And Draco was driving me insane.” Blaise rolled his eyes.

“Hey. It’s hard to be apart.” Draco pouted.

“I know it is. Let’s go to bed now.” Harry soothed Draco. Touching his hair and placing soft kisses against his forehead.

The three of them made their way to the bed. The room seemed positively delighted to have them back, if a little self-satisfied. It knew they wouldn’t be able to stay away. They didn’t bother talking as they climbed under the sheets, just wrapped themselves around each other. Harry and Draco clinging together like their lives depended on it, and Blaise comfortably on Harry’s side with his arms around him so he was able to touch Draco as well. Blaise may not have felt the same intense need the other two did to be next to each other, but it didn’t mean he didn’t miss having both of them there with him. 

Once they were together sleep came quickly. The stress of the day apart had exhausted them. Harry’s dreams were filled with Draco, Blaise and the infernal corridor, the one that haunted at least half his dreams, that night. Too early for Harry’s liking, something woke him up. He opened his eyes blearily. An alarm was going off. It sounded similar to the muggle alarm clock he knew Petunia and Vernon used. He looked around to try and find out how to shut it off, but he couldn’t work out where the noise was coming from.

“Hey… Room… I’m awake.” He said, when he realised that there wasn’t an alarm clock, and it was the room trying to get them out of bed. He cast a tempus charm, and saw it was 5.30am. Too early for his liking, but probably as late as they could push it if they were going to get back to their dorms before anyone noticed they were missing. 

“We’re all awake.” Draco yawned. “We get it. It’s time to leave. Thanks for letting us know.” The room seemed pleased at the acknowledgement. They had all been getting better at understanding the sentient room. 

“We should head back. Shower here or in the dorms?” Blaise asked. The room answered for them, vanishing the door to the bathroom. “Dorms it is.” Blaise grinned.

It was still before six when Harry reached the tower. He headed straight to the shower and then got dressed. No one else would be up for ages, so he grabbed one of the books on occlumency and slumped onto the sofa nearest the fireplace. Hermione came down from her dormitory about half an hour later.

“You’re up early.” She asked, seeing him sat there.

“Yeah. I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. Thought I may as well do something productive.” He answered, holding up the book so she could see. The two of them sat and discussed occlumency for a little while, until the rest of the Gryffindor’s came down. Ron was rather late, which annoyed Harry, as he wanted to get to breakfast. Well, more importantly, he wanted to get to the same room as Draco. Sleeping together had helped, but it didn’t make everything disappear, even though it would be a little while before the tug started. He reminded himself that he had potions, care of magical creatures and defence with Draco today, which should make things a little easier. If they were careful in both Care and Potions, they should be able to briefly touch hands. For the first time in his schooling, he actually hoped the teachers piled homework on them, so he’d have an excuse to go back to the library again that evening, as well. Then he thought about the following night. He knew, for the moment at least, neither himself nor Draco would be able to sleep apart. And that was a problem. If he sneaked out of his dorm every night, eventually one of his friends would notice. The same was probably true for Draco and Blaise. It was why they’d dismissed the idea in the first place, but it seemed staying apart just wasn’t going to work. They needed a solution to that particular issue, and soon. 

The day actually didn’t go too badly. He and Draco had managed to go to the potion’s cupboard for ingredients at the same time and had been able to link their hands together without anyone noticing for a few seconds, which had helped ease the bond. Professor McGonagall had, to his relief, set them three feet to write, so getting Ron and Hermione to the library had been an easy task. Ron had given him an odd look when he’d suggested it. He wasn’t known for completing his homework straight away. Procrastinating was a particular talent of his. Along with stubbornness. But he’d just shrugged and mentioned OWLs, which meant Hermione ended up giving a lecture on the importance of education. Hermione’s obsession with all things academic made for a useful diversion. Harry didn’t even bother to try and fall asleep when he went upstairs to his room that night, just waiting until he thought everyone else was asleep before sneaking out to the room, where he knew Blaise and Draco would be waiting.

“We can’t just do this every night.” Blaise said, once Harry and Draco had recovered back to a state where they could concentrate on anything but each other. 

“I know.” Harry replied. “Someone is going to notice eventually. I think I could probably spend a night away, but I don’t think I would sleep though, and I’m fairly certain it would be disastrous the next morning.”

“Pretty sure we’d end up making out in the Great Hall.” Draco added. “Not sure how we’d keep it a secret if that happened.”

“Okay. So staying away at night isn’t going to work for the time being then.” Blaise rolled his eyes. “Why’d I let myself get dragged into this?”

“No idea. But I’m very glad you did.” Harry wrapped his arms around Blaise and kissed him, languidly. The room seemed to chuckle in response.

“Hey, if you’re so wise. Why don’t you come up with an answer for us?” Harry chastised the room.

The room seemed to give Harry a scornful expression. It was very odd receiving these kinds of responses from the room, it never did so when he was here for DA meetings, but he was getting used to it. Even kind of liked it. The room was their co-conspirator. A book appeared on the table in front of them, then flicked open to a page of its own volition.

“Hey, look at this.” Draco said, reading the page the room had indicated. “A confudus ward, mixed with a mirage. That might actually work.”

“A what?” Harry asked, confused.

“It’s like a confundus charm, except placed around an object. I’m guessing the bed would be best in this case. Then we add illusions of ourselves sleeping. No one would be any the wiser. If anyone woke up in the night, they’d assume we were asleep. We’d have to cancel the illusion every morning, but the ward could stay in place. All it does is make it seem like being near and looking at our beds was nothing important. The illusion’s a secondary precaution. Room will make sure we’re always awake at the right time to get up, won’t you?”

The room appeared to agree.

“How does this thing work then?” Harry asked, curiously.

“Well, that’s the only problem. Well not for me and Blaise. I’m not sure how you feel about this kind of magic though, Harry.”

“Draco…” Harry asked warningly.

“It’s nothing dangerous. It’s just… Well it’s illegal, but only because it uses blood as a binding for the ward. The Ministry doesn’t like blood magic but that doesn’t mean it’s evil.” Draco rushed out.

“It will keep us safe?” Harry enquired.

“Yes.” Draco replied, with absolute conviction. The room seemed pleased with the praise for its solution. 

“Then show me. This is more important than what the Ministry thinks is good or evil. The Ministry approves Umbridge and we all know she’s a slimy evil little toad.” 

The three of them poured over the book for an hour, before they decided that they had the details of the ward straight. They’d have to sort the illusion charm another night, as it was already past 1am, and they guessed it would be another pre 6am wake up.

__________________

Even though he didn’t have the illusion charm to go with it, Harry placed the confudus ward around his bed that evening before he headed out to the room of requirement. The bond seemed to understand that they were planning to spend the night together as it hadn’t been as bothersome that day, even though they’d had fewer classes together, and hadn’t been able to touch at all. Harry collapsed on the sofa in relief next to Draco and snuggled into him when he arrived though. He reached out a hand to Blaise, who was sat on the floor between Draco’s legs. Touching both of them made him feel safer than he’d felt in his entire life.

“I guess we work on the illusion a bit before we crash?” Harry said.

“Seems like a plan. Wish the room could help us understand this weird link a bit better, not just giving us solutions to the short-term problems though.”

Like the last night the room seemed to huff in annoyance. As if it didn’t like the fact that Draco was doubting its skills. Another book appeared in front of them and fluttered open to a page.

“Sorry. Shouldn’t have doubted you.” Draco apologised and grabbed up the book.

Harry and Blaise worked on the illusions whilst Draco poured over the new book. They had almost got it down when Draco exclaimed. “Oh Merlin. Room, you are the best. Seriously. Like the most amazing room in existence.”

“What is it?” Blaise asked.

“An answer.” Draco grinned.

Blaise and Harry moved to sit on either side of Draco and read the passage Draco pointed to.

_The rivals’ bond is a rare and dangerous phenomenon. It appears to form between two who have shown enmity for each other when one of the pair experiences a time of crisis and great need, although why is unknown. This is because unfortunately, rather than helpful, documented cases of this bond have always resulted in madness and death for the two affected. Shared pain is the first distinguishing identifier of this type of bond. This escalates over the period of a few months and ends with the complete mental breakdown of both parties. The enmity that is required to form this bond seems to be the issue, as the affected parties inevitably end up pulling apart, which seems to be the trigger for the collapse of sanity. This breakdown involves enormous pain for both involved. One interesting aspect, that has been to this date unable to be explained, is that for each party there seems to be a secondary link. These persons are the only ones who are able to touch their half of the bond without causing increased distress. Eventually the two parties, despite their rivalry and often hatred for each other, will be drawn together. After this happens death follows no more than a week behind, as the bond then causes in an obsession beyond basic needs. Death from starvation and dehydration is the inevitable conclusion, as no one is able to get through to the pair. There is a theory that if at least one of the external links was able to bond in some way with the other half, then the bond would stabilise then this would result in an increase in strength. No other explanation as to why this bond would form has been logically theorised. This has never happened within historical record, and therefore there are no definitive facts on what might be possible should this type of bond stabilise, or even if it is possible._

“Fuck…” Harry said, when he finished the passage. “This is it.”

“Death and madness. Doesn’t sound great, does it.” Blaise looked worried.

“No… Think about it Blaise.” Draco sounded excited. “That’s what nearly happened. We would have died of exposure on Christmas day. But you…. We were right. You stabilised it. And why we need you around. This thing clearly isn’t completely settled yet. I just hope it does. Otherwise it sounds like we could still get completely lost in each other. I’m betting this thing started in the graveyard. Harry needed extra power and the bond formed. Everything makes sense. The theory is right. If one of the secondary links forms a bond of trust with the other, then the link can stabilise and grow. You helped Harry as well as me at Christmas. Harry trusted you and this thing managed not to kill us both.”

“Shit… That’s…” Harry was overwhelmed, but he was sure Draco was right. He pulled Blaise to him. “You fucking saved both of us that day.” Harry kissed Blaise hard, unable to keep the smile off his face.

“So not a two-way bond. Or not entirely.” Blaise said, curiously.

“Nope. I think you’re stuck with us.” Harry was still smiling as he spoke.

“You are the most important part. Or at least according to this. We have no idea what a stable bond will actually mean, but I think the writers speculation of increased strength has to be given some credence, given it forms only when one party has need of additional power during a traumatic event. I can’t see any other explanation. It doesn’t make sense for it only to be able to give strength to get through one event and then result in the excruciating death of two wizards a few months later.” Draco had wrapped his arms around Blaise. 

“Do you think there’s any more information anywhere on this?” Blaise asked.

The room seemed to scowl at them.

“He doesn’t mean anything by it, Room. We know you’ve given us the best information available to you. And we knew nothing before. We are forever in your debt.” Draco addressed to the room.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to imply you weren’t helpful. I just want to know as much as I can about this so we can try and work out how to keep Draco and Harry safe.”

The room settled, appeased by the apologies.

“I think we should go to bed. It’s nearly 1.30am. I’m glad we know, but I don’t want to try and get through classes on no sleep, and I very much want to cuddle up next to you guys.”


	5. Chapter 4 - Fifth Year Part 4 - Strengthening and Weakening connections

It took two more nights to get the illusions in place on top of the ward. The days continued on as before. Harry hung out with his Gryffindor friends, although spending more time in the library doing his homework than he’d ever done before, to Hermione’s delight and Ron’s annoyance. He continued with DA meetings. Nights were for Draco and Blaise. They hadn’t managed to find much more on the Rivals’ Bond, although they were completely convinced by the snippets of additional information they had gathered, that that was what was going on between Draco and Harry. Harry had a feeling the room knew more than it was letting on, but that it would only give them the information as they needed it, not before. His understanding of the room and its, what he could only call, friendship with him, begun to extend to when he was in it with the DA as well. It let him know when certain members needed extra help and sent warm feelings of satisfaction when he listened to it, though not as warm and happy as when he was in the room with Draco and Blaise. It loved when the three of them were together. When he was instructing the DA on patronuses, he felt its help in keeping the members from becoming too demanding when they wanted to see his patronus. The bond had let him know in no uncertain manner, that he wasn’t to show anyone but Blaise or Draco the tiger. The bond protected itself and the room protected them too.

Harry’s first occlumency lesson with Snape was, in no uncertain terms, awful. The man didn’t even give him a chance to clear his mind and start to build the mental shield he’d been working on with Blaise and Draco’s help, before he shoved at him with legilimency. Memories of his past were exposed to the prickly potions professor who hated him, however the second he started to approach memories of Draco the bond shoved Snape out of his mind violently.

“Did you mean to produce a stinging hex?” Snape sneered.

“No.” Harry snapped back.

“I thought not.” Snape glared at him. “You let me get in to far. You lost control.”

‘Yeah, because you didn’t even give me a chance to even try and block you.’ Harry thought bitterly to himself. At least the bond had protected the memories of Draco and Blaise. Harry knew it wasn’t him that had pushed Snape out of his mind. 

Snape hit him again with the spell before he even had a chance to catch his breath. Harry was drawn into memories of the Triwizard tournament. The Dragon. The pain in his shoulder as the tail caught him. The eerie feeling under the lake and his desperation to save all the hostages. The graveyard and Cedric. Harry felt like his brain was on fire. His whole body hurt when Snape released the spell. They went through the same thing three more times, with no greater success, leaving Harry feeling sick and exhausted.

“Enough.” Snape snapped. “You will practice clearing your mind and I will see you back here on Wednesday.”

Harry didn’t even think twice. He grabbed his things and stormed out of the room. He knew he should head back to his common room, but instead made his way to the room of requirement. He instinctively knew that Draco and Blaise would be there waiting for him for an update on how the lesson had gone. Draco wrapped himself around Harry as soon as he entered.

“It was so wrong. So wrong. He shouldn’t have been in your head.” Draco whimpered into Harry’s neck.

“I know. I know. I hated him there too.” Harry reached out a hand to Blaise so he could take comfort from both of them. “I fancy a bath before I head back to the common room. I think I need to relax before I face anyone.”

“You sure you have time?” Blaise asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’ll just tell them Snape kept me later than he did.” Harry stated matter of factly. He needed to be here. The more his life became entrenched with Draco and Blaise the less he thought about his old friends. It was probably a little callus of him, but most of the time, he just wished they weren’t around. He didn’t know quite why his feelings about them had changed so dramatically and quickly, but thought the bond was to blame. Just like it didn’t like them touching other people, it didn’t really want him to be close to other people in any other way. Still he had an image to maintain. If he suddenly dropped Ron and Hermione, then people would get suspicious and that could lead back to Draco and Blaise. It was a good job the room provided them with spells and runes, like the ones they used to escape their beds unnoticed at night. Otherwise things might be a lot harder. He trusted that if he ever needed a way to further prevent his two friends from becoming suspicious, the room would provide.

The three of them got in the bath and Harry basked in the love and attention his two companions gave him. The room produced a chilled and delicious bottle of white wine, which they shared. The room didn’t care that they were underage, nor that it was a school night. It could tell they needed to relax. It always took the bottles away when it decided they’d had enough anyway. Draco washed his hair with loving attention whilst Harry sat on his lap. Blaise massaged the tension out of the muscles in his back and shoulders. His scar tingled but as he felt more and more relaxed the less it did. Maybe this was the key to occlumency. Clearing his mind had never been easier than when he had Draco and Blaise helping him. They eventually managed to drag themselves out, and Harry felt insanely jealous when Draco and Blaise got into their pyjamas, whilst he had to put his school robes back on once he’d dried. All things willing he’d be back with them in half an hour. It was in fact an hour before he was able to get back, after the interrogation he got about the lesson from Ron and Hermione in the common room. He had never been more grateful for the ward around his bed when he snuck out just after his dorm-mates got into bed. When he got to the room, he dragged Blaise and Draco into their bed and they spent a fruitful hour undoing all of the stress the hour apart had caused Harry, with tongues and hands exploring pleasurably, before all crashing asleep feeling sated. 

The next day came the news that ten convicted Death Eaters had all escaped Azkaban. The Prophet was blaming Sirius, which infuriated Harry. How could they not believe him Voldemort was back after this. Draco and Blaise agreed with him about the Prophet’s idiocy. Although Draco, along with many of the Slytherins, had a distinct advantage over most of the other houses in knowing that Voldemort was back definitively, due to their families’ connection to him. The three of them worked even harder than they had before at occlumency. Blaise had told Harry in private, that Draco had responded very badly to Snape invading his mind. Although it hadn’t been quite as bad as it had been when he was in Voldemort’s mind before Christmas, Draco had been reduced to a similar state of pain and barely comprehensible sentences each time Snape had used the spell on Harry. With that motivation it hadn’t actually taken Harry that long to start blocking Snape out of his mind when he cast the spell, much to the Professor’s surprise. Harry was still plagued with dreams of wandering down the empty corridor though, which he had realised, a few days after the article, was the same corridor that he’d seen Arthur Weasley attacked in. Harry thought that was a little odd. He had a feeling that the longing to get through the door at the end wasn’t his, but he had no clue why he was dreaming about it. He’d asked Draco, thinking that the only explanation could be the bond and that for some reason Draco wanted to get through the door, but Draco didn’t have a clue. He had no desire to get though a mystery door. When Harry described the corridor however, Draco recognised it and had told him it was the entrance to the Department of Mysteries. He’d seen it when he’d been in the Ministry with his father several times. The problem was that if it wasn’t Draco or Harry who wanted down the corridor, the only other person it could be was Voldemort. Harry could now protect against outside forces from his minds relatively well, or at least he could mostly block Snape and completely block Blaise, the one time he tried. He couldn’t block Draco, which they assumed was the bond, as Blaise had no difficulty blocking the blonde, and even Draco said his skill at legilimency was not fantastic. Harry had tried Legilimency himself on the two of them too. A similar thing occurred, where Harry couldn’t get into Blaise’s head, but Draco’s was an open book, despite Draco being much better at occlumency than Blaise. The bond didn’t want to be blocked with standard occlumency it seemed. Harry though that maybe whatever was causing him to see into Voldemort’s head might comply to the same principles, although why was beyond any of their comprehensions. 

__________________

Cho Chang asked Harry to go with him to Hogsmeade on the trip planned for Valentine’s Day. Harry wanted to refuse but couldn’t think of a way to decline without leading to suspicions from his friends. As far as they were concerned, he was still interested in the Ravenclaw seeker. Draco had sulked when Harry had informed him, and it had taken both Harry and Blaise to reassure him that it was a necessary evil to protect what they had together. It was an awful date. Not only did Harry not want to be on it, but she dragged him to the most god-awful tea shop ever. It was filled with valentine’s day chintz and she had spent half the time crying about Cedric and telling him all about how Roger Davis had asked her out. Harry wished she had accepted Davis’ offer. Luckily, Hermione had insisted that he come meet her at the Three Broom Sticks at noon, so he’d had an excuse to leave. Cho had gotten even more upset at that but by that point he really couldn’t care less. Hermione, it turned out, had arranged an interview with Rita Skeeter, of all people, for the Quibbler. Harry felt very reluctant about giving this interview. He wished Hermione had spoken to him first. It made him feel very bitter towards his friend. Like with the whole Chang date disaster, however, he couldn’t think of a good reason to refuse. Or at least a reason that Hermione would think was good enough. So he told the hateful beetle animagus all about his experiences in the graveyard. He had wanted to keep Lucius Malfoy’s name out of it, because although he knew Draco didn’t like his father very much at the moment, he did still love him, and outing him as a Death Eater in the printed press felt like a betrayal. Hermione, however, knew the full story of the day of the third task, so it would have seemed very odd if he decided to leave Draco’s father out of the story at this point.

The day the Quibbler article came out was not a good one. Umbridge had been furious. She had given him another week’s worth of detentions, something he had avoided since the second week he’d endured at the start of term. She’d also banned him from all future Hogsmeade trips, which wasn’t such a hardship. That would give him whole days in the room with Draco and Blaise without anyone becoming suspicious. The week of detentions was awful, although nowhere near as bad as it could have been. Draco had applied the anaesthetic ointment lovingly before each session, and then bathed his hand in the healing concoction afterwards, distracting them both with kisses and whispered endearments. Harry was sure Blaise felt a little left out at times like this. When either of them was hurting, they became a little obsessed with each other. It got to the point where Blaise had to all but force them to do basic tasks such as eat and sleep. Harry guessed this was one of the more dangerous aspects of the bond, and why having Blaise as part of it was so important to maintaining their sanity. Had he not been there, they would have ended up lost in each other. The good thing that came out of the article was that Umbridge banned it, ensuring that every single student in the school read it. Her protests made it all the more believable, as why would the Ministry make a fuss if it really were just the deranged ramblings of a troubled and fame obsessed child. The school generally became less hostile towards Harry, and Seamus, who had been at odds with Harry since the start of term, even joined the DA. The DA was still a source of comfort for Harry. He truly enjoyed teaching the other students. Over half of them had now produced a corporeal patronus. He’d continued teaching Draco and Blaise too. Draco had managed his, without Harry touching him, about a month ago, and Blaise had produced his, a spotted leopard, the same day. The DA, however, was soon to be over, and its destruction to bring a whole new set of problems for the trio to deal with.

________________

“Ah, Mister Malfoy. Now we’re all here I can tell you about the important task I have for you. Take a seat why don’t you.” The irritating toad like woman said in her sickly sugar like voice.

Draco took a chair next to Pansy and took note of the other students in the room; Vince, Greg, Theo, Pansy, Graham Montague (a 7th year Draco only really knew from Quidditch), and himself. 

“Now, I have been informed this evening by a student that there is an illegal defence club being run in this school. It is being held in a room on the 7th floor. I have brought you all here to assist me in bringing in the troublemakers.”

Draco felt himself starting to panic. He wanted to curse whichever idiot student had told the bitch about Harry’s club. That told her about their room. He needed to so something to warn Harry but had no clue how. There was no way he couldn’t agree to helping the evil toad without it getting back to his father and people questioning why. He couldn’t listen to anything the ugly pink clad woman was saying. His mind was screaming at him not to do it. To refuse her and not betray Harry. There was still the logical part of his mind there telling him he had to follow her orders. To be what his father expected of him in order to keep the secret. The woman handed over a shiny silver badge in the shape of an “I”. He was confused as to what it was but pinned it to his robes, as the others were doing. All movement was on autopilot. The woman stood up and his gaze, then his body followed suit. Standing waiting for the next instruction.

“Now, if you all follow me; we shall head up there now.”

When it was over Draco felt like his world was collapsing around him. He’d watched Harry get captured after a trip jinx sent by Pansy. The look of hurt and betrayal, more than the pain of Harry’s fall, snapped him out of the automaton guise he’d been under since being in Umbridge’s office. He thought the look would kill him, and he almost wished it had. It was like the Quidditch match only this time it was worse. Because then he and Harry had barely known each other. Now they shared everything with each other and Blaise. He couldn’t go through the pain of separation again. He thought he heard Pansy call out to him, but he was running back along the corridor towards the room of requirement and was out of sight before he really registered what he was doing. He called their room and the door opened. His heart sank at seeing the mess of abandoned clothes and books scattered around what had become a special place for the three of them. It had become their home. Not knowing what to do with himself he undressed and went into the bathroom. He turned the shower on as hot as he could stand and stood under the stream of water. At some point tears started streaking down his face, the salt of them mixing with the water that he was trying to use to clean off his disgust with himself. He didn’t know how long had passed when he was lifted out of the shower. The water had gone cold. He was wrapped in a towel and carried to the bed. Strong arms wrapped around him, but he knew they weren’t Harry’s. He turned his head into Blaise’s chest, unable to bare the shame of looking at him and started to cry again.

“Blaise it was awful. I was awful. I should have refused.” Draco managed to croak out. “I don’t deserve you here trying to comfort me. You should go find him. He deserves you more.” Draco’s thoughts felt disjointed. “The look he gave me when he saw me next to Pansy. I don’t think he knew which one of us sent the trip jinx. But it wasn’t me. I promise it wasn’t me. Everything is starting to hurt.” It felt like someone was squeezing something in his chest with bruising force and he felt himself starting to panic. “What if they expel him? He can’t leave the school. I need him…”

“Shhh… they won’t expel him. Harry will be here soon. I promise. He will be here and then all that pain will go away.”

“Blaise… Make it stop…”

“He’ll be here soon. Just try and sleep for now.”

Draco sobbed himself to sleep on Blaise’s chest, with warm fingers running through his hair. He didn’t notice when Harry entered the room, nor when he was moved from Blaise’s lap to the other teen’s. He didn’t hear the murmured conversation between Blaise and Harry about what had happened. The next thing he noticed was being woken by a pop of appartition and a house elf shouting that “Mister Harry Potter, sir. What are you doing with the Young Master?” Draco didn’t think he’d ever heard a house elf sound astonished, but that was the impression he was getting from the creature. 

“Harry…” Draco said blearily, looking up to the face of the Gryffindor, who was holding him.

“Yes, Draco. I’m here.” Harry whispered to him; comfort Draco didn’t think he deserved radiating from his voice. He accepted it though. To not accept meant agony.

“Good.” Draco sighed in relief and closed his eyes again, pulling himself tighter into Harry’s chest. “I’m sorry… I didn’t want to. You know I didn’t want to. And It hurt so much. I thought….”

“I do know Draco, and we will talk about it in a minute, but I think we should deal with Dobby first. He’s getting quite upset.” Harry gave Draco a brief kiss, too brief for Draco’s liking, then addressed the elf. “Dobby, Draco is not going to do anything to hurt me. I’m here with him because I want to be. Draco isn’t his father Dobby.

“Now this is really important Dobby. I need you to promise not to say a single word to anyone about us being here together, okay. That includes to Dumbledore. If you do both Draco and I will be in trouble, and it’s likely that both of us would end up hurt. Can you please do that Dobby? No one can know about this.”

“Of course Master Harry Potter, sir. Dobby will keep your secrets. But if the Young Master does anything, you make sure you call for Dobby and I will make sure…”

“There is no need to threaten Draco, Dobby. He couldn’t hurt me if he tried. Now you might see us fighting and saying horrid things to each other out of this room. We have to do it to keep our secret, okay. But it’s not real, so you can’t use that as an excuse to do anything to Draco.”

“I was only going to swap the sugar in his dessert for salt…” Dobby grumbled.

“Please don’t do that. It’s not very nice, and I want you to be nice to Draco. Now, if it’s okay, can you please leave us. I need to talk to Draco.”

“Very well, Mister Harry Potter, Sir.” And with one last glare towards Draco, the house elf disapparated.

Draco didn’t really know what to think of the whole conversation with the elf. It obviously wasn’t bound to Harry, which made Draco nervous, as if it wanted to it could betray them. He felt his breath start to hitch as panic started rising.

“Hey, hey. Calm down. You’re safe.” But Draco couldn’t stop the intense anxiety washing through him. He felt his vision start to blur as weird spots of colour appeared. He closed his eyes again, trying to make the spots of colour go away, but they continued to swim in front of his eyes as his breathing became more and more erratic. He heard a voice shouting as if through water. Then a second set of arms was pressed around him, and he felt himself being enveloped between one clothed and one bare chest. Someone’s fingers were stroking through his hair, whilst another hand was rubbing comforting circles on his back.

“You’re only wearing a towel.” Draco said, still feeling a little out of it.

“So are you, Draco. Harry’s the odd one out here.” Blaise laughed.

“Hey, it’s not my fault both of you decided to shower and I haven’t had a chance yet.” Harry teased, and the warmth in his voice was the most soothing sound Draco had heard. “You back with us now Draco. Care to explain what happened?”

“Umbridge… she made me…” Draco could feel hot tears welling up and couldn’t believe he still had any more tears left in him to cry.

“No. Don’t worry about that bitch. I want to know what happened just now. You couldn’t breathe properly, and it scared me.” Harry said, and pulled him in closer.

“Panic attack.”

“I figured. I just couldn’t work out what triggered it.”

“The elf. I… how do you know he isn’t going to betray you? What if his Master demands him to…?” Draco closed his eyes and focused on the feeling of the two other boys who were pressed against him, knowing if he didn’t, he’d end up triggering off another panic attack. He’d had them before. The first when he was only six. His father had not been pleased that his son had done something undignified. He’d managed to hide them from his father after that day. Thinking about that though, was only likely to make him feel even worse. He concentrated on what Harry was saying instead, pushing aside the memories that were trying to bubble up and escape.

“Because Dobby is a friend. I freed him. He has no Master. You should know that. He used to be your father’s elf.”

“Oh.”

“Yes.”

“And he really won’t tell anyone.”

“He really won’t. He’s a little odd but very loyal.”

“And you don’t hate me?”

“No, I don’t hate you. I couldn’t hate you anymore.” Harry kissed Draco gently. “Do you think you can let go of me long enough so I can get washed and into pyjamas?” 

Draco shook his head.

“Okay then. I’m just going to get out of my robes.”

“Tell me what happened. I mean, afterwards.”

Harry told the story as he got undressed. Blaise had to help him with his clothes, as Draco wouldn’t let him go long enough for him to use his arms. He told of Marietta Edgecome and her betrayal, the Aurors and Fudge, and Dumbledore’s escape. The worst news was that Umbridge was now Headmistress.

“She gave us these badges.” Draco said, when Harry finished his story. The three of them were lying in the bed. Harry and Draco tangled around each other and Blaise stroking soothingly on Draco’s back. “She’s going to make us punish you.”

“So you will go along with it and punish me.” Harry said, matter as if it was obvious.

“But…”

“No buts. Keeping this a secret is infinitely more important than a few harsh words.”

“Why don’t we come up with alternative meanings? Draco can insult you and you’ll both know that it actually means something else. That way, the bond won’t be strained by it. It will know it isn’t real as long as the two of you know what the words actually mean.” Blaise said. Draco would work himself up into a state thinking about it otherwise. It was one thing for the two of them to bicker and argue, and generally drive themselves, and Blaise, insane in this room, it was something else entirely to follow orders and hurt Harry on purpose. With maliciousness.

“That’s actually a good plan.” Harry replied. He gave Blaise a quick kiss.

“I’m going to have to take points too.” Draco added, morosely.

“So Gryffindor loses a few points. I don’t give a damn about the house cup.”

“Can you give points too?” Blaise said, with a very devious grin.

“Yes…?” Draco sounded confused.

“Then I’m sure we can think of ways for you to give Gryffindor a few points as well. In the privacy of our brilliant and most wonderful room.” 

The room glowed in happiness at the praise. It hadn’t liked the fact that its security had been breached earlier and wanted the reassurance that its companions weren’t angry at it.

“It let her in earlier.” Draco sounded disappointed and upset. “What if someone learns how to get into our room.” Draco was truly worried. The room seemed worried too.

“What about a password?” Blaise said. “That way, the person who’s trying to get in not only needs to know what the room is being used for, but also a specific word phrase to get the door to open. Can you do that?”

The room appeared to pause to think, and then gave them a positive answer.

“Good. I think the first password should be ‘William Blake’. We can change it every few weeks, like with the common rooms, just to keep it secure.” Blaise said, with conviction. Blaise had found the book of muggle poetry and fallen in love with the poem, The Tyger. He said it reminded him of Harry and Draco. They weren’t convinced, but Blaise insisted.

“Sounds like a plan.” Harry responded, although he rolled his eyes at the password suggestion.

The room obviously liked it too, and the three of them had no doubts that the security of their room had just been increased.

“I’m tired.” Draco said, snuggling further into Harry. “Can any more planning wait until the morning, or do you need to go fill your Gryffindor friends in?”

“They can wait till the morning. I’ll just tell them I was upset and didn’t feel like going back to the tower. It’s not even a lie. The only place I feel like being is with you.” Harry kissed Draco deeply. “That’s both of you by the way.” Harry added when he broke the kiss and stroked a hand down Blaise’s side. Blaise leant across Draco and kissed Harry passionately in return and Draco felt every flick of Blaise’s tongue against Harry’s mouth and gasped. He could feel himself getting hard.

“Actually I think sleep isn’t what I want right now.” Draco panted, painfully aroused. 

The three of them spent the next hour in a state of pleasure that made them forget the awful events of the evening and fell asleep tangled together sticky and sated.

_______________________

Ron and Hermione were not happy when Harry stumbled back to the dorm just after 7am. The room had let them sleep in a little later than usual. 

“Harry. Where were you? We thought you’d been expelled.” Hermione said, with worry evident in her tone.

“Hey… Still not quite awake yet.”

“I don’t bloody care whether you’re awake!” Ron all but shouted. “Neither of us have slept at all.”

“You shouldn’t have stayed up. I just needed to be alone. Dumbledore is gone.” Harry said, by way of explanation.

“Gone… What do you mean?” Hermione said with urgency.

“Exactly what I said. He’s left the castle. Took the blame for the DA and vanished. It was Cho’s friend who betrayed us by the way. Also Umbridge is headmistress now.”

That was enough to distract them from Harry’s absence overnight. The two of them ranted at him for a while, with him only half having to participate with the conversations. They continued bickering all the way through breakfast and only stopped when Snape entered the room for their first class of the day. Potions. Harry spent most of the lesson staring at the back of Draco’s head, having to resist the smile that wanted to form whenever the blonde turned round to look at him. As a result his potion turned into a sludgy mess. He’d been doing better in potions since Draco had been tutoring him, but he didn’t miss the look of glee on Snape’s face as he took 15 points from Gryffindor and gave Harry a zero for the class and vanished the mess of his potion attempt. 

After class Draco, Crabbe and Goyle confronted the three Gryffindors and proceeded to insult them and take points. Harry didn’t mind so much, although Ron was fuming. Harry knew what the harsh words and points removed really meant. Draco cared for him. That Harry was the most important part of his life. That he hated doing this. At the end of the day, back in the room of requirement, Draco reiterated the true meaning of his words, with kisses in between each sentence. He also gave points back for things Harry did that pleased him. There was therefore great confusion the next morning when Gryffindor was equal with Slytherin in points. Everyone knew that the inquisitorial squad had been ruthless when it came to the removal of house points, and no one could work it out. Harry had to hold back his laughter at where the points had come from and was insanely glad there was nothing tracking the fact that Draco had given him 150 points for blow job, and another 100 for a back massage in the bath. Maybe point allocation shouldn’t be done after a bottle of champagne. 

The twins had started to cause chaos after the formation of the inquisitorial squad in protest. They let off fireworks of their own invention around the castle, that couldn’t be stunned or vanished by standard means. If anyone attempted, they ended up exploding violently or multiplying. Luckily the first of these were set off when Harry was actually in Umbridge’s office so he couldn’t be blamed. She had tried to give him verituserum, which he recognised, thanks to Draco’s excellent tutoring and managed not to drink. She’d questioned him about Dumbledore’s whereabouts, and he was able to lie effectively until the fireworks, and the disturbance they had caused, dragged her out of the office. He followed and was delighted by the brightly coloured annoyances.

Despite Harry’s progress in keeping Snape out of his mind, his occlumency lessons continued. Snape seemed to think the fact that Harry still kept on seeing flashes into Voldemort’s mind, as well having the continued dreams of the corridor leading to the Department of Mysteries meant that Harry wasn’t trying hard enough. He’d confronted Snape about the corridor a couple of weeks ago, and the man had been fuming. Harry had figured by now that whatever weapon Voldemort wanted, the one they had overheard the Order talking about during the summer, was down in the Department of Mysteries. Snape hadn’t changed his method, however. Even though Harry was now not only able to keep him out of his mind, but also throw fake memories at him with ease. Snape thought the fake memories were real, and no matter how many times Harry protested they were fabrications, he insisted that Harry was useless at the skill, and that any time he blocked Snape was merely a fluke. Harry just thought occlumency wasn’t the answer to blocking Voldemort, or if it was, something more specific than just blocking his mind against attacks was needed. He still couldn’t block against Draco. It was like Draco was already in his mind. Harry and Draco had both shivered at the implication the Voldemort might be too, if he was able to be there despite the occlumency shields Harry had in place. 

The latest lesson wasn’t going well when Draco came in and interrupted them. Montegue, who’d been missing for more than a week after the twins had shoved him into the broken vanishing cabinet on the first floor, had been found. Snape left with Draco and Harry was alone in the room. Harry let his mind drift. He was irritated at Snape for not believing that he had already mastered the aspects of occlumency he had been instructed on, but that it just didn’t work against Voldemort. He noticed the pensive sat out of the way, that Snape always siphoned certain memories off into at the start of every lesson. It didn’t seem fair that Snape was allowed to keep things from him, but he expected Harry to be happy for the Professor to see every painful and intimate part of his mind. Still, it seemed like an intrusion to look at these memories. The devil of curiosity and annoyance won, and he touched the silvery substance, diving into Snapes memories. When Snape pulled him out, righteous fury across his face, regret was already eating at Harry’s insides. Not at Snape’s anger, but at what he had seen. His father and Sirius had bullied Snape as badly as he himself used to be bullied. Snape had been right about his father. He was exactly as arrogant as he’d always told him.

Harry felt like a great weight had been pressed down on him. He wanted to talk to Sirius. To ask him about the incident after their DADA OWL, but there was no way of contacting him that wasn’t being monitored. All letters in and out of the school were being screened and read, and the only fireplace that allowed floo calls was the one in Umbridge’s office. Hermione had also chewed him out when he told her he wasn’t having anymore occlumency lessons. He tried to explain that Snape wasn’t exactly helping him. That he was quite able to keep Snape out of his mind and that it didn’t make a damn bit of difference, but she didn’t believe him. She told him he should go to Snape and apologise and beg for them back. He felt a little bad when he told her to sod off and stormed out to the Room of Requirement to wait for Draco and Blaise. They didn’t take long to arrive. Harry’s upset had obviously alerted Draco that Harry needed him. Harry sobbed into Draco’s shoulder for a while, neither of them pressing on why Harry was upset until he had stopped crying.

“Hey you.” Draco said with a kiss to his forehead. “You ready to tell us what all of this is about?”

Harry squeezed his arms around Draco a little tighter. “Not really. Don’t particularly want to talk about it.”

“If you can’t talk about it to us, who else can you talk about it to? And if it’s upsetting you this much talking will help.” Blaise answered, his fingers playing with Harry’s hair, comfortingly.

“It was… When Draco came and took Snape away from the office… I saw something… Something I shouldn’t have seen…”

“And what you saw upset you?” Blaise asked, straight forwardly.

“Yes. And it caused Snape to stop my occlumency lessons. Not that they were any use. And now Hermione is mad and pestering me to go to Snape and beg for them back.”

“Well you definitely shouldn’t do that. They aren’t helping in the slightest with stopping the Dark Lord entering your dreams and if he won’t accept that, then he’s being a suborn idiot.” Draco replied. It cheered Harry up slightly to hear Draco insult Professor Snape like this. That despite Draco’s close relationship with the man he could still be indignant on Harry’s behalf.

“Yeah, well they don’t believe me. Besides that’s not what’s really upsetting me. Sure it hurts that my friends don’t trust me, but… I saw my father and Sirius back at school treat Snape…” Harry paused, not quite sure how to phrase his worries. “They were bullies. They were truly awful to him. I just… I always thought of my Dad as someone who was good. And Sirius is… I know he’s a bit reckless, but he’s my godfather, and I love him and he’s the only person outside of the three of us who I’d even consider telling about this bond.” Harry felt himself start to cry again.

“Hey… Hey. It’s not that bad. Remember what a git I was. People change. How old was he in that memory? I’m betting no older than we are. Just because he was awful then doesn’t mean he’s awful now. It doesn’t mean that your Dad wasn’t a good father to you. Look at my father. He’s done awful things, but I still love him. You’re allowed to love them, even if they aren’t perfect. Perfect isn’t possible.” Draco soothed, and Harry felt a little better.

“I just wish...” Harry paused, trying to work out what it was he actually wanted. “I wish I could talk to Sirius. I want to hear him explain. There just isn’t any way now.”

The room let out what Harry swore was a small cough, and a fireplace that hadn’t been there before appeared, complete with its own little pot of floo powder.

“Want to call him? I’m pretty certain Room won’t let anyone disturb.”

The room gave them the impression rolling its eyes. Of course no one would disturb them.

“I… Yes…” Harry said, then addressing the room and smiling, despite his tear stained face. “Thank you.” 

“Do you want us to leave so you can talk in private.” Blaise asked.

Harry thought about it. “No. Anything I say to Sirius, you can hear too. You are the most important people in my life. I trust you.”

Draco gave him a very pleased hug, and Blaise kissed him.

The floo call did calm most of Harry’s doubts. Remus had been with Sirius, which meant he was also able to contribute to the conversation, and Harry had appreciated his old Professor’s input. It did, however, mean that he wasn’t able to tell Sirius about the bond. Harry didn’t know exactly why, but all three of them knew the only person they could even consider telling was Sirius. That no one else would understand. It was the same way they knew they couldn’t show anyone their patronus forms. The bond knew, and to go against it was a dangerous game. They reinforced what Draco had said about fifteen/sixteen-year-olds being able to grow up, and that Sirius, despite the fact that he still disliked Snape, felt ashamed of the bullying behaviour he had once thought of as perfectly normal. 

He went back up to the tower after the call had ended, to spend some time with his Gryffindor friends, whilst Blaise and Draco did the same in Slytherin. They all had appearances to maintain. When he entered the tower Hermione rushed at him and apologised for not believing him when it came to his progress in occlumency. Ron had given her a talking to. Usually it was the other way round, so it made a change. She then complimented him on his improved work ethic since Christmas. They still spent a lot of time in the library, and his marks in all of his classes had improved as a consequence. He was much more confident that he would pass his OWLs with good grades than he had been before his relationship with his two Slytherins’ had started. The three of them had stayed up in the common room late, just talking like they used to. Harry realised he’d probably been neglecting his two first friends with all the other commitments he had. He just couldn’t bring himself to care enough to do anything about it. So, that night, like every other since Christmas, he placed the mirage on his bed and snuck out to his true home in the Room of Requirement. He thought it probably wasn’t necessary to spend every night their now, the bond never seemed to tug at them anymore in the castle, but sleeping next to the two other boys wasn’t just what he needed anymore. It was what he wanted.

The time until his exams was approaching rapidly. He had a careers advice session with McGonagall, which he’d almost forgotten. It was a fairly useless meeting as not only did he have no idea what to do, but Umbridge was sitting in it as well. He was very pleased however at his head of house’s praise at his improved grades across the board, bar DADA, which he didn’t count as he knew he’d do well in the actual exam in spite of Umbridge’s ineffectual and biased teaching. Fred and George had left the school in a blaze of glory, having gotten completely fed up with Umbridge. They had used his investment to set up a permanent shop in Diagon Alley for all the products they had tested, and successfully sold to the students. Harry hoped he would be able to visit during the summer. During the last quidditch match of the season, Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw, Hagrid had dragged him and Hermione into the forest and introduced him to his half-brother, Grawp, and managed to extract a promise from the two of them to visit him if Hagrid was forced to leave the school. A prospect that seemed more and more likely. Umbridge had gotten rid of Trelawney even before she had become Headmistress and had been inspecting all of Hagrid’s lessons with extreme distaste. Before he knew it, his OWL exams were upon him. All in all, they had gone well. He was fairly certain he’d managed to memorise enough of the crap in divination to pass with at least an Acceptable. He’d also managed to finish his star chart and was only checking it over before the horrible distraction of Umbridge trying to remove Hagrid from the school, and McGonagall receiving four stunning charms to the chest. It had made him feel sick to watch, and more than ever he wanted the bitch that had caused it out of the school. Even if it meant the risk of Dumbledore coming back and the potential that his secret would be uncovered increasing. He was in no doubt that if anyone was going to discover the bond it would be the Old Headmaster. His potions exam had gone perfectly, as had his charms one. There was a slight issue in transfiguration, but he’d been able to fix it promptly, and hoped it wouldn’t affect his grade too badly. In DADA he was completely confident he had received an Outstanding, even though he had refused to produce his Patronus, using the excuse that he didn’t want to show off or distract the other candidates in the hall currently completing their practical. The small Professor Tofty, who was invigilating, looked a little disappointed, but had accepted. Patronuses were a NEWT level spell, not a 5th year one. 

His last exam was History of Magic, which aside from Divination, was his weakest subject. Draco and Blaise’s tutoring was only able to undo so much of the years of sleeping through Professor Binns’ without self-studying every topic covered at the time. It hadn’t helped that his head was killing him. His scar was burning like it never had before. He built up occlumency shields to try and block out the pain, or at least make it so it wasn’t at the forefront of his mind. As soon as the time was up, and he left the hall the strain of keeping up the shields was too much, and he felt them shatter. The pain overwhelmed him. He felt himself collapse into the vision. Sirius was being held in the Department of Mysteries. When he came to, he wanted to be sick. Then he wanted Draco. He couldn’t get to Draco though, he just hoped that Blaise was with him and looking after him. Draco would have felt the same pain he felt, and even though he’d gotten better at dealing with pain over the last few months, this had been excruciating. He was sure it had been a true vision, but Hermione had insisted they check. He couldn’t tell them about the floo connection in the Room of Requirement though, so the three of them had managed to distract Umbridge with Ginny’s help and use her fireplace. They had been caught. Kreacher had told them that Sirius wasn’t there and then Umbridge and various members of the inquisitorial squad had been surrounding them, including Draco. He looked at Draco, trying to will the knowledge from his head into his blonde. Umbridge had called for Snape and requested verituserum. Snape had been his usual cool self and Harry remembered all of a sudden that Snape was also a member of the order.

“He has Padfoot. He has Padfoot in the place where it is.” Harry called out. Trying to get his message across. He had no idea whether it registered before Snape had stalked out, his robes billowing in their characteristic manner. Then Umbridge had threatened him with the Cruciatius curse. He looked at Draco, wide eyed. If she used it here, with them both in the room, there would be no way to hide the bond, and more importantly it would not only cause him agony, it would leave Draco a crumpled mess. Hermione intervened before he could do or say anything. She tricked Umbridge into coming in the forest with them and the idiot had insulted the Centaurs. Then the three Gryffidor friends were off on Thestrals to the Ministry, with Ginny, Luna and Neville in tow. Harry wished he could warn Draco he was leaving the castle. He wanted to tell him that it would hurt, but that he was doing it to save Sirius, who was like Blaise in so many ways. That he wouldn’t be doing this for any other reason. 

__________________

Draco ran to the Room after he escaped the Incarcerous the Weaselette bitch had cast on him. He could already feel the increased tug and knew Harry was leaving the castle. His shouted message to Severus had told Draco that Harry believed that Sirius Black was in danger and at the Ministry. He’d felt the pain of Harry being in London before, and could only hope that without the bond being at breaking point that it wouldn’t be quite as bad this time. Blaise was waiting for him. He had had some inkling from the point that Draco had collapsed after the History of Magic exam that something was horribly wrong, and the Room was their safe place. The place they went as soon as they could if they needed to be together. He’d come here as soon as Umbridge had separated him from Draco so she could use him in his inquisitorial squad capacity. Harry wasn’t there though. It was just Draco. And Draco in almost as bad a state as he’d been before Christmas.

“It hurts…” Draco whined.

“I know love. I know. It will be better soon. He’ll be here with us soon.”

“Someone’s hurting him.”

“He can protect himself. You have to stay strong. You can’t distract him. He feels your pain too, remember.” Blaise heled Draco tight. Willing Harry to feel the safety and comfort he was giving to Draco. Anything to make this easier on the two of them. Harry wouldn’t have done this if it weren’t important. He knew that Draco would end up a wreck if he left the castle, which was the only explanation for the blonde being in such a state. Harry could push through and not succumb to the agony it caused Draco. Blaise knew why Harry was so stoic under pain. When Harry had finally told the whole story of his childhood Blaise had been reduced to tears, and Draco a blubbering mess. Blaise had a feeling that Draco was hiding some skeletons from his childhood, but he never said anything. Still, Harry hated causing Draco any pain, so it must have been important for him to have left the school.

Draco started sobbing uncontrollably. “Gone. Gone. Gone. No….. Can’t be…..” 

“Shhhh….. It’s okay… He’ll be here soon.” Blaise tried to reassure despite the fear that filled at Draco’s words. Harry couldn’t be gone. Draco would… He would… They couldn’t manage without Harry.

Draco started screaming. It was a completely unearthly scream. Even worse that the scream he’d let out that night before Christmas. Before Blaise had known about any of this. Before he knew Harry. Before he’d let the scruffy dark-haired Gryffindor into his heart. He thought he was going to break. He knew in his heart that scream meant Harry was gone. Then Draco’s eyes flew open and his tone changed completely.

“Mine.” Draco’s voice was commanding. His eyes may have been open now, but there was nothing behind them. “He’s mine. Get out. Get out. Get out.” Over and over again the words were repeated until Draco collapsed, exhausted into his arms. Blaise sobbed. He was confused. Nothing made sense. All he knew was that Draco had been hurting beyond anything he’d ever seen before, and Harry wasn’t here. Harry was the only one who could take the pain away. 

Blaise didn’t know how much time had passed when the door to the room opened. He knew his face was red and puffy from crying. He had Draco clutched to him tightly. The other teen was still unconscious, having shown no sign of waking up since his last outburst. Harry walked in, looking as horrific as Blaise felt. He wanted to run to the other boy, but couldn’t move without letting go of Draco, which he was unwilling to do. 

“Harry…” He choked out. And then the other boy was racing towards him and embracing the two of them. Tears were streaming from both of their eyes. They were kissing each other, the unconscious Draco pressed between them, not caring that it was clumsy and not at all like the pleasurable kisses they’d shared before. It was all teeth and tongues and longing. A need to know the other was there and real and alive. 

“I love you. I love you. You fucking bastard. Don’t ever do that again.” Blaise said. He was unaware it was the first time any of them had said those three words to each other. His forehead pressed against Harry’s. There was a mix of saliva, tears and snot over both of their faces, but Blaise didn’t care. Harry was there. 

“I love you too.” They were kissing again. When they managed to take a breath for air. “I promise. I will never ever leave you. Did I hurt him badly?” Harry looked softly at the still unconscious blond in Blaise’s lap. 

“Yes.” There was nothing else Blaise could say. He couldn’t lie about this to Harry. There was no way to soften the blow.

“Fuck.” Harry replied and then took Draco from Blaise and held him close. Peppering him in kisses. Blaise could see Harry willing the limp form of Draco to wake up. Blaise was surprised that Harry had taken the time to comfort him before trying to comfort Draco. Blaise didn’t realise that he was just as important to Harry as the blonde. That the bond may have tied Draco and Harry together in ways that made their relationship unique, but that didn’t always override the love he felt for others. If it had, Harry would never have left the castle. Would never have recklessly gone to the Ministry on his fool’s errand. As far as Harry was concerned, Blaise was just as important. What they didn’t understand though, that Harry’s comforting of Blaise first was another shift in the stability of the bond. That they were coming closer to being able to use it, rather than just exist with it. It had taken the loss of Sirius to achieve. It was a high price to pay, but it was an inevitability. From the moment they had cemented Blaise into their bond someone had to pay the price. The bond was greedy and stole Sirius’ magic as he fell through the veil. Neither Draco nor Harry would ever realise this was the cause of the increased strength they would discover in a few months. This was one secret the bond kept from them, and always would. They wouldn’t have been able to live with the guilt.

“Draco, Love. I’m here. I’m back. I’m with you and we’re all safe.” Harry whispered, rubbing his cheek against Draco’s and holding him tight.

“mmm…” Draco moaned.

“Yes that’s it, love. Come back to me. It’s all over. It doesn’t hurt any more. Me and Blaise are here and we both love you. We need you to come back now.” 

“Love you…” Draco murmured.

“Yes, we love you. That’s right, Blaise.”

“Yes that’s right. We both love you and we want you to wake up.”

“And you saved me, Draco. You got him out of my head. My head is for no one else but you, and you forced him out. Right.”

“Mine…” Draco had opened his eyes, but still didn’t seem with it. “Love you… Mine… No one else’s.”

“No. Just me, you and Blaise.” Harry winced slightly at the statement. Sirius should have been part of it too, but he was gone. Gone because of Harry’s rash decision. A decision that had not only resulted in the death of his godfather but had caused the other half of him to suffer so much agony he’d collapsed into this state of semi-consciousness.

“Mine…” Draco whispered and then fell into a more restful state of sleep. Harry and Blaise eased him down onto the pillows between them. They didn’t need to say anything to know that any discussions about what had happened should wait till the morning. Harry didn’t think he’d be able to sleep, but with Draco pressed into him and his hand tangled with Blaise’s he eventually drifted off. The room didn’t wake them with an alarm in the morning, and it was nearly noon before they started to stir.

“Harry.” Draco said, nuzzling into Harry’s chest. “You’re okay.”

“Yes I’m okay, love.” Harry replied, kissing Draco, and not caring that neither of them had cleaned their teeth.

“You left. Something happened. I know it was bad, but I don’t know exactly what it was.”

“It was bad.” Harry looked grim. Blaise had opened his eyes and was looking at him.

“Tell us. Tell us why you left the castle. I know it must have been important for you to have stretched the bond like that, but fuck Harry. I don’t think I’ve been so scared in my entire life.” Blaise said.

“It was important, but I was wrong. I shouldn’t have left. It was a trick. He showed me a fake vision and made me think Sirius was in danger. Sirius died because I went there.” Harry felt the guilt of his actions start to overwhelm him when Draco grabbed his hand and squeeze tight. 

“If we thought that Blaise was in that kind of danger then would either of us hesitate for even a second to go and try and rescue him. Sirius had the potential to be like Blaise. He never got to be. But he could have been. Maybe not exactly the same, but just as important. I don’t blame you for going there. Trick or not. It would have been unbearable.” Draco said, eyes a blaze with conviction. “Sirius may have only been yours, but he could have been ours, like Blaise is. And we could have been his. You are not to blame.”

“I shouldn’t have….” Tears started welling up in Harry’s eyes.

“You are mine. And I am yours. And Blaise owns us both. Okay. That is how this works. Sirius could have owned us too. You couldn’t have done anything else when you thought he was in danger. There was no other option.” Draco didn’t know how he knew this was true, but he was absolutely sure in the conviction. Something had shifted in the bond and with it had come a greater understanding of how it worked. ‘Mine’ he thought. He almost thought he heard Harry’s voice reply ‘mine’ in response back inside his head but dismissed it.

“Are you two going to explain? This feels like another conversation where I’m missing at least half of the facts. I get that you two sometimes have this weird mental understanding between each other, but I don’t and I need to understand if I’m going to look after you, which seems to be something I have to do.” Blaise interrupted.

“Sorry Blaise.” Harry said, sounding ashamed. “I forget sometimes that half of mine and Draco’s understanding of each other is completely instinctual and we don’t always have to say things.”

“Doesn’t mean we care for you less.” Draco added.

Harry snorted. “Without you, we’d both already be dead. Just because your connection is different, doesn’t stop it being just as important... Like Sirius’.” The last words were heavy with sadness.

“Do you feel up to explaining?” Blaise asked gently, shifting himself and Harry so Harry was sat between his legs and could lean back on him. He wrapped his arms around the dark-haired boy. Draco sat up too and leant against Blaise’s side, tangling his hands in Harry’s.

Harry, feeling safe and comforted surrounded by the love of the two people who were connected to him down to his core, explained everything that had happened from the moment the vision had hit.

“…Sirius fell through the veil and then I was chasing Bellatrix Lestrange. She was mocking me about Sirius’ death. I tried to cast the Cruciatus curse on her, but it didn’t work. I wanted to cause her as much pain as I felt but it still didn’t work. Then Voldemort appeared, and then Dumbledore. The two of them fought. They destroyed most of the Ministry atrium. At some point in the battle Voldemort tried to possess me. It felt horrible and invasive and wrong and…”

“He’s mine. Get out.” Blaise said, flatly, remembering the horror and fear of that moment. “Draco said it. He kept on repeating it, over and over.”

“You pushed him out. He couldn’t possess me whilst you were there. I’m certain he didn’t know what caused it, but I do.” Harry kissed Draco and squeezed Blaise’s hand.

“What happened next?” Draco asked.

“The Minister appeared and saw Voldemort, so at least they know he’s back. The Death Eaters that were still there were captured. I’m so sorry.” Harry said remembering who one of the arrested Death Eaters had been. “Your Father was there and was arrested.”

“It’s okay. I love him, yes, but it doesn’t stop him being a bit of a crap person.”

“Yes. Well, Dumbledore made a portkey and sent me to his office. Then I kind of trashed the place. The door wouldn’t let me out to get to you and I was already a mess as it was. When he arrived, he told me the prophecy, which was the whole reason I was lured there in the first place.” Harry felt grief start to overwhelm him again. He’d pulled himself together for Draco, but he couldn’t keep it up. “If the bastard had told me before then I never would have gone. I would have known Voldemort was tricking me. Sirius would still be…” Tears started pouring down his face. “Dumbledore says I still have to go back to them.”

“You’re never going near those bastards again. Never. I won’t let anyone force you to.” Determination rung in Draco’s voice.

“But… where do I go…? I know we were planning to get Sirius to take us, but with him…. Gone… It’s not like I can go to yours Draco.” After the floo call with Sirius the three of them had discussed their plans for the summer, as they realised that it would be impossible for Harry and Draco to be parted. They were relying on Sirius to act as Blaise had and protect them.

“You could come with me to Italy.”

“And how do we explain why I’m with you to your Mother? Draco, sure, but not me. Sirius was the only other person we could tell.”

“You don’t need to go to Italy. You’ve said that you were staying with your Godfather part of last summer and at Christmas in London. Was it at the old Black Property?”

“Yes…”

“Then we can stay there.”

“How? The order uses it as headquarters, and god knows who owns the property now Sirius is gone.”

“This is why you have a stuck up pure-blood as your better half. Father made me study inheritance laws from when I was six. There are only two scenarios that could occur with the entire Black estate, not just that one property, but the vaults and any other land and property too. Either Sirius left it to you in his will, as I don’t believe there is anyone else he would have entailed it to, and the will is accepted by the magic of the Black line or it goes to the next oldest male in the Black line.”

“And who’s that and what do we do if that happens?”

“It’s me.” Draco laughed. “Doesn’t matter which way it works out; the house is ours. We can use your cloak to escape from the Platform and walk there.”

“And the Order?”

“Again, be grateful for my pure-blood training. We can shove up the one of the family wards. Doesn’t matter what enchantments they’ve got over the place, they’ll all be overridden. Using those no one but the people we invite will be able to access the property.”

“I’m still going to have to go to Italy to see my mother. At least for part of the holiday.” Blaise said.

“You’ll just have to join us when you can.”

“What about your family, Draco? Isn’t your mother going to expect you at home?”

“I’ll write and ask to stay with Blaise for the start of the holiday. Say with Father under arrest I want a break from everything. She knows how to take care of herself, and I can go to the Manor when Blaise is back. You will not be alone this summer. Hopefully by that time we’ll have worked out a way to get between the Manor and the Black Property. The disadvantage of the more secure of the family wards we’ll need to activate, if they are anything like the Manor ones, is it blocks floo access entirely.”

“So no Dursleys.”

“Never again.”


	6. Post Script - Aftermath of the escape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter of part one of this, and mostly containers teasers for the rest of the story. I do have a few chapters of the next installment written but they need some significant work doing on them before I start posting.

Kingsley Shacklebolt was pacing his office in agitation. He couldn’t work out what the hell had happened. Somehow two Death Eaters, and two of the more notorious ones at that, had escaped Azkaban with the aid of Harry Potter. To say he was furious was an understatement. Underlying that anger were the even worse feelings of frustration and utter bewilderment. They had managed to trace the initial apparition and then the next couple of jumps as far as Nottingham, but then nothing. The escape had clearly been planned down to the last detail, and the only person that could have done that was Harry Potter. It just didn’t seem possible that the boy who had defeated Voldemort would help the Malfoys escape justice. A knock from the door dragged Kingsley out of his tangled thoughts.

“Sorry to disturb you, sir. I’ve brought Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley as you requested.”

“Yes, send them in.” Hopefully, Harry’s two closest friends would be able to shed some light on what had happened.

Both Ron and Hermione looked slightly haggard when they entered the office. They looked a bit like Kingsley felt. 

“Take a seat both of you. I think this is going to be a long conversation. Would either of you like a cup of tea or something before we start?”

The two of them shook their heads and then slumped into the chairs in front of the desk. Kingsley made his way to his own chair behind the desk and sat down.

“So do either of you have any idea where Harry is?” Kingsley asked, not knowing how else to start.

“No. I’ve been wracking my brain for days but can’t think of anywhere. We don’t even know where he’s been staying since the end of the war. He has a home somewhere, but he’s never told us where, nor even hinted as to where it might be. I’m guessing it’s the same place he used at the end of 5th year; when he ran away. The only place I can think it could be is Grimmauld Place. It’s been closed up and impenetrable since Sirius died. You remember the Order investigation to try and find Harry that summer. It was assumed, given that Snape said that Voldemort hadn’t sent any of the remaining Blacks to claim it, that the house locked itself up at the death of the last male in the line. But I’m sure Sirius would have left it to Harry in his Will, and if we’re wrong about what put the house in lockdown...” Hermione Granger said.

“You’ve been there to check?”

“Yes, first thing this morning. After Dumbledore…” Kingsley heard Hermione’s voice catch at the name. “ – the fideleous will still be in place, but well we’re all secret keepers now, so he might be able to take the Malfoys there. I don’t know enough about how house wards work though, and it’s not like I can even see the place. But I’m fairly certain that the house shouldn’t have blocked itself after Sirius’ death, like everyone said. I’ve done some reading on inheritance laws, and there are still other living Blacks. Just because Sirius was the last with the Black name, the line didn’t end with him, so there must be something else going on with the wards. For a start there’s, Andromeda Tonks, Narcissa Malfoy, and even though she’s dead now, Bellatrix Lestrange who were all alive at the time. They’re all Blacks by birth, even if they’re from a slightly different line of the family tree. Which makes Malfoy a Black too. He’s the most likely candidate to own the property, as he’s the only male, bar Teddy, who’s a generation behind him in terms of rights. The problem is the fidelous would have kept all of them out, whether they owned it or not, whilst Dumbledore was secret keeper. Basically the people who could change the warding couldn’t get in when we know they changed, and the only person who could get in, Harry, wouldn’t know how to change the warding.”

“Are you sure Harry couldn’t have changed the warding back then?”

“I’m sure. How could Harry have known anything about old pure-blood properties and the protections in place? He wasn’t raised like that and all of the secrets of those kinds of protections are closely guarded by the families. Sirius wouldn’t have told him about them. They never had enough time together. Besides, Sirius rejected all of that.”

“Very well, Miss Granger. I trust that you know Harry well enough to know that he couldn’t have applied whatever wards are currently in place back then, although it may be different now. I will get some people on looking at finding out who inherited the property with Gringotts, though I doubt they’ll tell us. We can also see if they’ll let us know if Harry has any other properties in his name, but again it’s unlikely we will get anything from them. I’ll also send people to stake out the place, and maybe some curse breakers to look at the wards. They might also be able to tell us how long the protections have been in place, which should give us some clues.”

“Thank you, Sir. I’m glad to help in any way I can.” Hermione replied, earnestly. Kingsley was impressed with her insights and he wondered whether she had anything to say on the other impenetrable wards that were vexing him.

“There’s also something strange with the wards at Malfoy Manor. As we had Lucius and Draco Malfoy in custody we didn’t check until after the escape. Narcissa Malfoy is definitely living there. She even came to speak to us at the gate, but we couldn’t get in, and it seems that she can’t get out either. Not that we think she’s trying very hard; she knows we have a warrant for her arrest too. It was just until the escape she was deemed relatively unimportant, so no one was actually looking for her. The thing is, if what the curse-breakers say is true, she’s not lying about not being able to leave. Someone activated an incredibly powerful ward linked to the Malfoy line, and they aren’t breakable. The only people who could do that are Draco and Lucius Malfoy, and Narcissa said that she’s been locked in since just after the battle, which has been confirmed by the curse-breakers who examined the wards. It’s not a likely place for them to go, as Harry wouldn’t be able to get in however, only the two Malfoys.”

Rather than Hermione answering the red head, who’d been silent until now spoke.

“Are you sure he’s with them?” Ron’s voice was full of despondence.

“I was there when they escaped. He’s with them.” Kingsley said with a sigh, echoing the demeanour of the young man in front of him.

“What happened?” Ron replied. “Because there is no way the Harry I know, would have broken two Death Eaters out of Azkaban. Especially not Malfoy.”

“He went to see Lucius Malfoy a week before the incident and managed to persuade him to drop his appeal and accept the kiss. I’m guessing that was part of the plan to get the two Malfoys in the same place, as Lucius used his last request to have his son there. Harry volunteered to be the one to guard the younger Malfoy, and I couldn’t see any reason to question it. He was the one to talk Lucius into dropping the years of court cases that would have resulted from his continued appeals. The second the Dementor entered the room to undertake the execution, a barrier pushed everyone away from the three of them and the younger Malfoy cast a Patronus. I’m not sure how he got a wand though. The wand we captured him with is still locked away.”

“Harry had Malfoy’s wand. It was the one he used to finally defeat… He stole it from him when we were captured in their awful Manor. The wand you have must have been a replacement.” Hermione interjected.

“Well that explains that part of this whole mess then.” 

Hermione didn’t look so sure, but she didn’t say anything to contradict him.

“So Malfoy cast a Patronus? Didn’t think a dark bastard like him could do that.” Ron prompted.

“He did. I know most wizards considered dark can’t, but it’s not unheard of. It kept the Dementors at bay whilst Harry proceeded to undo the bindings that kept Lucius Malfoy in place. Lucius then grabbed his son’s wand, whilst the younger Malfoy grabbed the one Harry was using. Harry got a third wand from somewhere else and cast his own patronus the second the younger Malfoy’s fell. It looked like they’d purposefully timed it.” Then remembering something else puzzling about the whole sordid mess. “I thought Harry’s patronus was a Stag.”

“It is a stag.” Ron said, looking puzzled. “Isn’t it?” 

Hermione was still lost in her own thoughts. The multiple wands seemed more of a curiosity than the patronuses. She held her tongue for the time being and let Ron and Kingsley continue down that tract. She could ask later. 

“It wasn’t that day. It was a tiger. The same as the younger Malfoy’s. When did you last see his Patronus? It might give us some clue as to when their alliance started.”

“They can’t have an alliance.” Ron spat. “Harry hates the ferret.” There was complete conviction in his words. The more Kingsley thought about it though, the more he was led towards one conclusion. Sure Harry could have been tricked into helping the Malfoys, but the Patronuses told a different story.

“Ron…” Hermione said softly. “I think his actions seem to say otherwise and matching patronuses…”

“Precisely Miss Granger.” Kingsley said, not sure whether he was pleased or saddened to hear his conclusions agreed with. “So when did you last see it?”

“I think maybe 5th year. He taught them to us in the DA.”

“No Ron… He refused to show us his then. I don’t really remember why not.” It was only looking back and thinking hard that she even remembered this. There was something fuzzy about the whole thing. She remembered the lessons, and remembered the others asking for a demonstration. She just had no clue as to why one hadn’t occurred, only that she was sure one hadn’t.

“So this could have been going on as long as that?”

“It can’t be. He literally sliced Malfoy’s chest open in 6th year. And Malfoy killed Dumbledore… Harry was devastated after that.” Ron was starting to sound cross. Hermione could just feel despondency creeping over her. Like one of the dementors was in the room sucking out her happy memories. One that was focused on only her happy memories of Harry. She tried to be rational.

“This is all so confusing. I remember he started acting a little strange in 5th year, but that was when he kept on seeing into You-Know-Who’s head, and then remember that summer. He ran away and refused to see anyone or tell us where he was. Not even after he returned to school. Professor Dumbledore was furious with him for not going back to his relatives. Not that I can really blame Harry for that. Sirius had died, and Harry’s relatives were always truly awful to him. I can understand him not wanting to go to them and Professor Dumbledore was insisting. But 6th year…” Hermione paused. This was the crux of the issue. There was just no way that Harry could have had anything to do with Malfoy in 6th year. Before she could form her thoughts into sentences, Ron spoke up.

“Harry spent the year telling us Malfoy was up to something, not that we believed him at the time, even if he was right about him being a filthy Death Eater.” Ron voiced her thoughts for her.

“Exactly, that was when Malfoy was plotting to kill Dumbledore, nearly killed Ron and Katie, and let Death Eaters into the castle. So I can’t see Harry having some sort of relationship with him that year. Although he did refuse to leave the castle that Christmas and spend it the Burrow. I suppose it could have been because he wanted to stay with Malfoy in the castle. But that would mean Harry would have at least had to know what Malfoy was doing that year, and Harry wouldn’t have hurt Dumbledore, Ron, or Katie. Then this last year we were on the run together… He really didn’t want us to go... But Malfoy was Voldemort’s second in command by that point, so a relationship between them still doesn’t make sense.” She flopped her hands down. They had been animatedly moving throughout her speech. “Everything is so contradictory.” She finished exasperated.

“There’s no point when you were on the run when he disappeared?” Kingsley glanced between Harry’s two young friends.

It was Hermione that answered. “No…well he did go retrieve one of the things we were looking for by himself from Gringotts. But he wasn’t quite alone, he took a Goblin who we rescued from the Malfoy’s house with him and who helped him break in, in exchange for the sword of Gryffindor.”

“I wouldn’t have thought the goblins would have done that.” Now Kingsley felt even more confused.

“I wouldn’t have either, but he returned with the item we wanted and without the sword.”

“It seems like we’re missing something important. Besides, going over the when and the why isn’t helping us find them. Even if Harry had some kind of relationship with the Malfoys, it still wouldn’t explain the how of his escape. He shouldn’t have been able to disapparate from Azkaban, especially not with two people in tow, even if they did have wands. And that shield they formed. There were more than a dozen people trying to break through and nothing worked.” Kingsley himself had felt the strength of it. And neither Harry nor Draco seemed to have been particularly focused enough on the barrier to keep back the number of spells cast on it. They were both occupied with other magic.

“Maybe we need to think about Malfoy not Harry. Have any of the captured Death Eater’s said anything about how a 17-year-old became second in command.” Ron pondered. Kingsley hadn’t expected that from Ron. From his interactions with the two of them, he would have thought Hermione to have been more likely to bring up the question. It was an interesting one though, and one Kingsley tried to investigate over the last couple of days, without success. The prisoners they had weren’t very helpful, so all they had to go by were his school reports and what the teachers said about him. So far it had been impossible to speak to any of his old friends, bar the ones they had in custody. And none of them were any more helpful than the Death Eaters.

“Not much. The limited information we’ve got has hinted that he’s very powerful. There is nothing to confirm this, however. From his school reports, even if he did manage Outstanding across the boards in his OWLs, there was nothing that showed more than slightly above average magical power. What we can say is that he is very clever. We believe that his success at killing Dumbledore was likely a significant contributing factor. The problem is, Death Eater ranks, and the reasoning behind them, were not something we asked about in the trials. We’ve tired talking to the ones we have in custody, but they all seem disinclined to help. We’ve put a halt to all executions by Dementors until this is fully investigated. We can’t have the procedure being used as another distraction.” Kingsley had spent most of last night arguing over the issue until it had eventually been decided that until it was determined how it was done, the security risk was too great.

“What if it wasn’t a normal shield?” Hermione suddenly blurted out, her mind not thinking about Malfoy and his status within the Death Eaters, but the odd phenomenon of the barrier Harry and Malfoy had used. Something similar had been used at the Battle of Hogwarts, but no one had questioned it at the time.

“What do you mean, not a normal shield?”

“I’m not sure but either Voldemort, or Harry demonstrated that they could put up some kind of impenetrable barrier in battle. It could be the same thing. We all saw it at Hogwarts. No one thought to question it though. I assumed it was Voldemort, as Harry had never shown us that ability before, but if it was Harry, then maybe he did the same thing to protect the Malfoys”

“Interesting. We’ll get someone to investigate. I had assumed it was You-Know-Who’s shield at the battle too, although thinking about it, it makes more sense for Harry to have put it up. It probably saved a lot of lives having their battle isolated like that.”

Hermione decided that there wasn’t going to be a better time to bring the subject back to wands. There was definitely something strange about the wands, and it seemed she was the only one to have realised. “There is one other thing, I’m slightly confused about.” She started sheepishly and looked at Kingsley, who encouraged her to continue. “Harry’s wand was broken last year, and he started using Malfoy’s after he stole it from him. You said there were three wands in play.”

“Harry’s wand was broken?” Kingsley was shocked. This was new information to him. 

“Yes. Nagini attacked us in Godric’s hollow and it was hit with a blasting curse back in December. We had to share until we were captured at the Manor and he took Malfoy’s. Malfoy’s always worked for him perfectly, even though mine didn’t. His wand was beyond repair and to my knowledge he hasn’t bought a replacement. Olivander’s isn’t even open again yet. Where did he get the other two and whose were they? All three of those wands worked well enough for Harry, and at least two of them for Malfoy, for them to perform powerful magic. They wouldn’t have been able to do that with just anyone’s wands. And they all swapped them round when they needed Lucius Malfoy to be able to use magic too. That means they must have thought that Lucius Malfoy would have the best chance with his son’s wand, which makes sense, but they also had complete faith in the other two wands for themselves. You should find out whose wands they were.”

“Well there was no shortage in power or difficulty with their casting, as you might expect with a wand whose allegiance lay elsewhere. I don’t know enough about wands and wandlore to be able to recognise them, although the one Harry had at the end looked familiar. I just, don’t know where from.”

“There is definitely something strange going on. You should talk to Olivander. Show him memory in a pensive and hopefully he can identify the two unknown wands. Look we’ll help you however we can. We just want Harry back and safe. I’m sure once we find him, he’ll be able to explain everything and we’ll realise that this has all been just a huge mistake.”

“I really hope so Miss Granger. I really do.”

_____________________

Draco, Blaise, and Harry were enjoying a late breakfast around the table in the conservatory in their new home. The paper arrived just as they were finishing.

“You know, I haven’t been able to look at this damn thing since your arrest, love?” Blaise said to Draco, indicating the Daily Prophet.

“Oh…? Why not?”

“Why do you think you idiot? I couldn’t face seeing what they were saying about you in there. It was even worse the day of your escape. I was desperate to look to see if it had succeeded, but too bloody scared in case it had failed, and I lost the both of you.”

“Well we’re here now, so it doesn’t matter what they say. Read it to us. Like you used to back in Grimmauld.”

“I bet I can guess what it’s saying.” Draco said, teasing his two husbands. “It will all be about Harry dearest being the next Dark Lord.”

“Hey…” Harry shoved Draco lightly with his shoulder.

“He’s right you know. That is exactly what it’s saying. Got to love how predictable the Prophet is.” Blaise laughed. And it was such a good laugh. They’d spent the last year with only occasional visits and it was this kind of domesticity that Harry had missed the most. 

“Yes well he did defeat both the last Dark Lord and murder the leader of the light. I think Harry makes a very good candidate for Dark Lord.” Draco smirked at him.

“It is true, love. Although I do prefer not to think about how I killed Dumbledore.”

“You did what?” The voice came from the door and the three of them all turned to stare at a Lucius Malfoy who was looking significantly better than the wreck he’d been yesterday.

“Why don’t you sit down and have some breakfast with us father? We were just reading the paper.” Draco said, in his most ridiculous casual posh voice.

“Not until you tell me what the hell you mean by Harry bloody Potter being the one to kill Dumbledore.”

“Well he did break us out of Azkaban. Did you really think he’d do that if he was the paragon of all things good and saintly that the public believed until yesterday?”

“That doesn’t exactly explain… You know what, clearly I’ve gone mad.”

“Sit down Lucius. Draco, stop messing with your father.” Harry said, smiling gently at his blond husband.

“But…”

“Draco… A total of three people know exactly what happened that night, and one of them is dead. Can you exactly blame your father for being a little confused? There is also the fact that he’s spent the last three months in Azkaban, and thought he was going to die yesterday. Give him a break.” Blaise admonished.

“I was in Azkaban too.” Draco pouted.

“Yes you were you idiot. And if you’d bloody well listened to me and run when you had the chance, you wouldn’t have been.”

“I couldn’t let them take, Mother. And she wanted me to go to father and help him.” Draco whispered.

“I know, love. And she’s safe. And your safe now. Even your bloody Father is safe.”

“Only because you’re a foolish Gryffindor.”

“I’m a foolish Gryffindor who saw how much it was hurting you to see your father lying there waiting to die.” Harry had forgotten Lucius was still in the room by this point, but Blaise hadn’t, and he was watching the man’s face as his Son and Harry talked.

“Narcissa asked you to come and save me? She shouldn’t have.” Lucius asked his son.

“Well she did and she’s my mother and you’re my father, so I tried and got captured as a result. At least Harry was able to get to the Manor to raise the old family wards to protect her. She doesn’t know how that was done, just that they were raised.”

“I really do have a lot to thank you for Mr Potter. It seems my entire family is in your debt.”

“Yeah, well. Given I’m part of the family now I don’t think that really matters.”

“And it was really you that killed Dumbledore. Not Draco.”

“Pretty much.”

“Are you ever going to tell me the whole story?”

“Probably not.”

“I guess I’ll just have to live with that. I think I’ll just go back to my rooms.”

“Sure. The elf we’ve assigned to you will get you anything you need. We’re going to try and work out a way to get you to your own Manor. Unless you’d prefer to go somewhere else, although we’ll need to sort a connection to be able to get your wife and guest out of there safely whatever. The Goblins have protected the vaults, so money won’t be an issue.”

“I’ll think about where’s best. I don’t really want to be restricted to the Manor for the rest of my life, but it is definitely better than the alternative.”

Lucius left the room, leaving the three young men alone again, seeming to have not taken in the fact that Narcissa wasn’t alone in the Manor.

“Are we ever going to tell anyone the full story? Also, did you say my mother has a guest?” Draco asked.

“Christ knows. Who on earth do we tell? We’re essentially all fugitives, except Blaise.” Harry was about to continue when, Blaise interrupted.

“Hey. I am a fugitive by proxy, I’ll have you know. It’s not like I’m letting the two of you out of my sight again. There is no way I’m going to help stage another gaol break. As long as the three of us are together there isn’t much anyone can do to actually capture the two of you.”

“Got to love the Black library.”

“No place like it.”

“Focus Harry. Mother has a guest.”

Harry grinned. “Yes. I have no idea how he is, but when I put the wards up he was alive.”

Draco launched himself at Harry in glee. “I can’t believe it. You…Fuck I love you.”

Harry laughed. “I believe it was your mother that saved him and got him out of there.”

“I know. I told her where he was and how to get to him when I shoved your invisibility cloak into her hand at the battle. But I didn’t know she got there in time. Your stasis must have held him long enough for her to get to the antivenom I had in my rooms.” Draco was now sat on Harry’s lap, their arms wrapped around each other.

“Well, I clearly have a thing about saving people you care about. Now, back to the actual issue of how we get into Malfoy Manor undetected so we can have our home to ourselves.”

There was several minutes silence whilst they all thought. 

“Hey, we still have both vanishing cabinets, right?” Draco inquired.

“Yes…... What are you thinking Draco, dearest?” Harry spoked, conspiratorially. He could always tell when Draco had a good plan.

“If Blaise can get into the Manor with one of the cabinets then we can enter the Manor that way.” Draco replied. “And we can send my Father back to Wiltshire where he won’t be able to wind us up. However grateful I am for you being a noble git and saving the bastard, I think that as soon as he’s not in complete shock about what happened yesterday, he’ll start driving us all up the wall. Also I want to see Mother and I think we owe her guest a bit of an explanation.”

“Then we should get right on it.” Harry grinned. “I’m looking forward to seeing the look on his face when I walk in with you.”

“Are you two ever going to stop scheming?” Blaise looked slightly exasperated underneath his pleased smile.

“Nope.” They answered in unison.


End file.
